Liberating the lay forces of Christianity [microform]

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LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES
OF CHRISTIANITY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

SEW YOHK . BOSTON CHICAGO . DALLAS
ATLANTA . BAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
OF CANADA, LIMITED

TORONTO

LIBERATING

THE LAY FORCES OF

CHRISTIANITY

The Ayer Lectures for

BY
JOHN R. MOTT

NEW YORK:

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1932

COPYRIGHT, 1932,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

All rights reserved no part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes
to quote brief passages in connection with a review
written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper.

Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1932.

SET UP BY BROWN BROTHERS UNOTYPERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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TO
MR. AND MRS. WILFRED W. FRY

Who with loving devotion are carrying forward

a great tradition and with prophetic insight and

responsiveness to opportunity are helping to

bring in a new day

THE AYER LECTURES OF THE

COLGATE-ROCHESTER DIVINITY SCHOOL

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

THE Ayer Lectureship was founded in May,
1928, in the Rochester Theological Seminary, by
the gift of twenty-five thousand dollars from Mr.
and Mrs. Wilfred W. Fry, of Camden, New
Jersey, to perpetuate the memory of Mrs. Fry's
father, the late Mr. Francis Wayland Ayer. At
the time of his death Mr. Ayer was president of
the corporation which maintained the Rochester
Theological Seminary.

Shortly after the establishment of the Lecture-
ship, the Rochester Theological Seminary and the
Colgate Theological Seminary were united under
the name of the Colgate-Rochester Divinity
School. It is under the auspices of this institution
that the Ayer Lectures are given.

Under the terms of the Foundation the lectures
are to fall within the broad field of the history or
interpretation of the Christian religion and mes-
sage. It is the desire of those connected with the
establishment and administration of the Lecture-
ship that the lectures shall be religiously construc-
tive and shall help in the building of Christian
faith.

Five lectures are to be given each year at the
Colgate-Rochester Divinity School at Rochester,

vn

viii THE AYER LECTURES

New York, and these lectures are to be published
in book form within one year after the time of
their delivery. They will be known as the Ayer
Lectures.

The lecturer for the year 1928-29 was Pro-
fessor Willard Learoyd Sperry, D.D., Dean of
the Theological School in Harvard University.
The lectures have been published under the title,
Signs of These Times.

The lecturer for the year 1929-30 was the Rev-
erend Lynn Harold Hough, Th.D., D.D., Litt.D.,
LL.D., pastor of the American Presbyterian
Church, of the United Church of Canada, Mont-
real. The lectures have been published under the
title, Personality and Science*

The lecturer for the year 1930-31 was John R.
Mott, LL.D., Chairman of the International Mis-
sionary Council, President of the World's Alliance
of Young Men's Christian Associations, and
President of the Institute of Social and Religious
Research.

PREFACE

IT was a sacred privilege to respond favorably
to the invitation to deliver in April, 1931, the
course of lectures on the Ayer Foundation at the
Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, for Francis
Wayland Ayer, in whose memory this lectureship
was established, was a highly valued personal
friend. The honored name which the Foundation
bears suggested to me the subject, "Liberating
the Lay Forces of Christianity."

Francis Wayland Ayer was one of the model
laymen of his generation. With rare fidelity,
efficiency, and intensity he served the Christian
cause from early youth until he was seventy-five.
He was a pillar of strength in the great Baptist
Communion. For half a century with unquestion-
ing loyalty he fulfilled his duties as member of the
North Church, Camden. He followed his father
as President of its Board of Trustees, a position
he held until his death. For twenty-five years he
was President of the State Convention of New
Jersey, and for a period served as President of the
Northern Baptist Convention.

He was not only a good denominationalist but
likewise a large-minded interdenominationalist.
As President of the Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation of his city, Chairman of the New Jersey

ix

x PREFACE

State Committee of this organization for over
two decades, and a foremost member of the In-
ternational Committee for many years, he influ-
enced profoundly the growth, policy, and effec-
tiveness of this movement throughout the world.

Mr. Ayer was a Christian strategist. His
abounding lay activities were concentrated on the
youth, believing, as he did, with deep conviction
that the key to most of the problems of the
Church lies in reaching people in their youth. For
a full half century he was the inspiring superin-
tendent of the Sunday school of his Church. He
was also an influential member of the Board of
Peddie Institute, and, during a wonderfully cre-
ative period, the enthusiastic chairman of the
Boys' Work Department of the International
Committee of Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations.

He carried his Christian principles into his busi-
ness life and relationships. When he entered upon
his life work in the advertising field there pre-
vailed widely in that sphere of business much that
was disreputable. He, possibly more than any
other man, made it honorable. His governing
principle in his business, as well as in all other
relationships, was the Golden Rule. With him
advertising was made a dynamic and beneficent
social force.

On the other hand, with contagious earnestness
he brought to bear upon his religious work unique
business abilities. He was wont to say, "The work
of the extension of Christ's Kingdom is the biggest
and most important business and ought to have our

PREFACE a

best." This explains the infectious, highly multi-
plying, and enduring character of his influence.

The aim in these lectures is to indicate the sig-
nificant and indispensable part which laymen have
had in building up the Kingdom of God; to give
the reasons why a vastly greater lay force should
be released in our day and related to the enlarging
plans of Christianity; to point out the influences
which militate against the larger participation of
laymen in the Christian program; and to outline
constructive plans and measures for liberating the
all-too-latent lay forces so imperatively demanded
by the present world situation.

The bibliography indicates the wide range of
my obligations. I would particularly acknowledge
my indebtedness to Professor George Lincoln Burr,
of Cornell University, and to Professor William
Walker Rockwell, of Columbia University and
Union Theological Seminary, for invaluable sug-
gestions.

JOHN R. MOTT.

December, 1931.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE ix

I. THE CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN TO THE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH i

II. THE NEED OF AUGMENTING THE LAY

FORCES 40

III. INFLUENCES WHICH MILITATE AGAINST

THE LARGER PARTICIPATION OF LAYMEN

IN THE LlFE AND WORK OF THE CHURCH 75

IV. THE SECRET OF LIBERATING A GREATER

LAY FORCE 92

V. THE SECRET OF LIBERATING A GREATER

LAY FORCE Continued 117

BIBLIOGRAPHY 139

INDEX 159

LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES
OF CHRISTIANITY

THE CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN TO THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH

i. The most vital and fruitful periods in the
history of the Christian Church have been those
in which laymen have most vividly realized and
most earnestly sought to discharge their respon-
sibility to propagate the Christian faith. This fact
was impressively illustrated in the days of the
early Christians. Every page of the Acts of the
Apostles and also the correspondence of the apos-
tolic writers bear witness to it. When all circum-
stances are considered the smallness of the initial
band of Christians, their meager human resources,
the extent of the geographical territory they cov-
ered, the numbers and groups reached by their
message, and, above all, the difficulties and perse-
cutions they encountered the first generation of
Christians did more to plant and spread the religion
of Christ than did any of their successors. In this
first great outburst of the Christian faith Chris-
tians in general (who in later periods came to be
characterized as laymen), as well as apostles, were
moving spirits. The laity wrought actively with
the apostles. Recall the significant word descrip-
tive of what followed the first persecution of
Christians : The disciples "went everywhere preach-

2 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

ing the Word . . . except the apostles." Every
convert was a witness.

The same widespread and whole-souled par-
ticipation of laymen characterized the wonderful
outreach of Christianity in the post-apostolic age.
In his famous chapter on the causes of the wide
and rapid spread of the Christian religion in the
inhospitable soil of the Roman Empire, Gibbon,
who was by no means a special pleader, assigns
the first place to the fact that "it became the most
sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among his
friends and relations the inestimable blessing which
he had received." x Thus the converted trader
shared with members of his guild the knowledge
of his new-found Saviour. The soldier told other
members of his legion of the wonderful Christ.
The disciple discussed with his teacher and fellow
students the Christian truth which had laid power-
ful hold upon him. The slave who had fallen
under the spell of the One who had come to pro-
claim release to captives could not refrain from
pointing to the Great Deliverer. Wherever the
Christian disciples scattered, the evidences multi-
plied of Christianity as a leaven working quietly
for the conversion of one household after an-
other. 8 It is this commending by life and by word
the reality and wonder-working of the Living
Lord on the part of the rank and file of His dis-
ciples within the sphere of their daily calling that

1 Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire (London: Methuen & Co., 1896), Vol. II,
Chapter XV, p. 7.

* See Arthur Cushman McGiffert, A History of Christianity
in the Apostolic Age (rev. ed.; New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1899), p. 68.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 3

best explains the penetration of Roman society
with the world-conquering Gospel.

Harnack, Lightfoot, McGiffert, Ramsay, Bart-
let, Glover, Streeter, and other writers dealing
with this period shed valuable confirmatory light
on the sense of mission which animated the laity in
those germinal days. Harnack, for example, in his
Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Cen-
turies states that after the Resurrection the dis-
ciples of Christ "at once started to preach Him
and His Gospel with the utmost ardour," that "the
transition to the Gentile mission was . . . carried
out with irresistible force," and that "we cannot
hesitate to believe that the great mission of Chris-
tianity was in reality accomplished by means of
informal missionaries." * Dr. T. R. Glover in his
recent book takes us more deeply, perhaps, than
any other writer into one of the secrets of the
highly propagating power of the Christian faith
in its most difficult days :

The real conviction of the living Christ was not car-
ried to the world by a book nor by a story. Men might
allege they had seen the risen Lord ; that was nothing till
they themselves were known. The witness of the Resur-
rection was not the word of Paul (as we see at Athens)
nor of the eleven ; it was the new power in life and death
that the world saw in changed men.

That I may not seem to theorize too much, let me take
a definite case of conversion, a typical one, as I think.
Tertullian was a pagan, a lawyer, a man of letters with
a strong infusion of Stoic teaching. Born and bred a
pagan, he was far from studying the Scriptures "no-
body comes to them unless he is already a Christian."

* Adolf Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity in the First
Three Centuries (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904).
x > PP- 49* 54, 460-

4 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

... A grown man, well read and well trained, but with
a conscience stained by life in the world, it appears he
was in the amphitheatre one day when Christians were
martyred. One or two short passages will tell the story.
"Every man," he writes, "who witnesses this great endur-
ance, is struck with some misgiving. He is set on fire to
look into it to find the cause of it. When he has learnt
the truth, at once he follows it himself." "No one would
have wished to be killed, if he had not been in possession
of the truth." "The very obstinacy [remember Marcus
Aurelius used this word] with which you taunt us, is
your teacher. Who is not stirred by the contemplation of
it to find out what there really is in the thing? Who,
when he has found out, does not draw near? and then,
when he has drawn near, desire to suffer?" Men and
women even slave-girls, for it was the new spirit, the
Socratic courage and calm of the slave-girl, by sex and
condition depressed below the human level, that impressed
the observer who or what made them capable of such
moral grandeur? ...

It was the life and death of Christians that compelled
attention, their victory over fear, their faith in a living
Saviour. The legend of a reputed resurrection of some
unknown person in Palestine nobody needed to consider;
but what were you to do with the people who died in
the arena, the reborn slaves with their newness of life
in your own house? And when you "looked into the
story," it was no mere somebody or other of whom they
told it. The conviction of the people you knew, amazing
in its power of transforming character and winning first
the goodwill and the trust and then the conversion of
others, was supported and confirmed by the nature and
personality of the Man of whom they spoke, of whom
you read in their books. 4

The period of the Reformation constitutes an-
other illustration of the vitalizing influence exerted

* T. R. Glover, The Influence of Christ in the Ancient fPorld
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1929), pp. 96ff.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 5

by laymen in the activity as well as the spiritual
and intellectual life of the Church. A chief char-
acteristic and result of the Reformation was a
fresh manifestation of the right, the place, and
the influence of the laity. It was essentially an
appeal to the liberty of the individual conscience
and judgment as enlightened by the Holy Spirit
through the study of the original writings of the
Christian faith and of the experiences of the early
Church. Every Christian according to the teaching
had direct access to God and became a priest
under Christ and a witness for the extension of
His Kingdom. We see this illustrated all along
the pathway of the activities of the reformers, be-
fore, during, and since the Reformation, whether
on the continent of Europe by Luther, and, to a
greater extent than often realized, by the Ana-
baptists or Mennonites; or in the British Isles by
Wyclif and the Lollards. Throughout those great
days of the Reformation lay action was every-
where in evidence, and among the leading lay
minds or unordained workers of the era were to
be found such thinkers and scholars as Erasmus
and Melanchthon and the great Calvin himself."
The Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth cen-
tury also is an inspiring exhibition of the provi-
dential mission and boundless possibilities of lay
responsibility and effort. Secular and religious
scholars and writers unite in bearing testimony to
the uplifting and transforming power of this move-

See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892), Vol. VII, pp. 313-17,
passim.

6 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

ment both in the British Isles and in the American
Colonies. Dean Hodges says that the three most
notable times in the extension of the Church were
the times of "the martyrs, the monks, and the
Methodists." Most of the early martyrs, as we
have seen, were laymen ; a large proportion of the
monks were in the lay orders ; and the Wesleyan
movement owed its early great expansion to its
lay preachers. John Wesley in his A Farther Appeal
to Men of Reason and Religion, written in 1745,
after telling of the prejudice he had at the start
regarding the use of laymen, justifies his course by
the unmistakable way in which the Spirit of God
worked through them. These lay preachers or
workers whom he employed by the hundreds, and
who in the subsequent life of Methodism have
been utilized by the tens of thousands, had under
his instruction to expound the Scriptures morning
and evening, meet the Societies, visit the Charges,
and take general oversight of the activities of the
Christian community.

Other illustrations in distant centuries and in
modern times might be added to show what an in-
dispensable factor laymen have been in helping to
make possible the creative periods in the life of
the Church, for example, William Carey, founder
of the modern foreign missionary movement, and
Robert Raikes, of the Sunday-school movement.
On the other hand, the times when the Church
has stagnated, when she has been dominated by
secularism or worldliness, and when she has lost
her world-conquering power have been the times
when her members that is, her lay forces as

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 7

well as her leaders have lost their vision and be-
come inert. We need think only of certain dreary
stretches of the Dark Ages, or of the days of the
Counter-Reformation, or of the formalistic, sterile
period preceding that outbreaking of spiritual life
the modern foreign mission crusade. A study of
the experience of the Oriental Churches, notably
those in the Near East and Northern Africa at the
present time, affords solemnizing lessons of how
atrophy sets in when Churches, not only in their
clerical leaders but also in the rank and file of their
membership, fail to accept and discharge their
missionary obligation.

2. Throughout the centuries the recognition and
acceptance on the part of laymen of their respon-
sibility for the extension of Christ's Kingdom has
afforded a convincing demonstration of the priest-
hood of all true Christian believers. At times this
vital truth has become lost or obscured. Its recov-
ery has always meant restoration from death to
life within the Christian community.

The Christian Church was more or less demo-
cratic from the start. Once baptized, a Christian
found himself a member of a brotherhood. "The
members of the [Christian] community were not
yet known by any distinctive name. They called
themselves the 'brethren,' the 'believers,' the 'dis-
ciples.' . . . They were 'brethren,' all on a footing
of equality in the service of a common Master." 6
"In the New Testament laos means the whole
people of God, the elect race, and royal priest-

Ernest F. Scott^ The First Age of Christianity (New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1926), pp. zxSf.

8 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

hood, the holy nation ; it includes the apostle, the
prophet, pastor and teacher, evangelist, and helper,
while kleros means not the body of officers, but the
special charge allotted to any worker within the
holy nation." *

According to apostolic practice, the ministry
consisted of laymen deputed by the apostles to
perform specific duties in relation to the whole
Christian community and to the spread of the
Kingdom of God. The laymen are God's minis-
ters as truly as are the ministers themselves. They
share with one another the priesthood. Their
priesthood differs only in degree, not in kind. Both
are avowed followers of Christ with a common ob-
jective to extend the sway of Christ over the
lives and relationships of men. As Lightfoot points
out, "The sacerdotal functions and privileges,
which alone are mentioned in the apostolic writ-
ings, pertain to all believers alike and do not refer
solely or specially to the ministerial office." 8 Every
disciple of Christ has direct access to God for
worship, for emancipation, for fellowship, for all
needed spiritual power and wisdom. He is com-
missioned by Christ to be a witness, a worker, and
a fruit-bearer. Luther, by denying that there are
any essential differences between priest and lay-
man, struck a fatal blow to the hierarchy of his
day. A theory of the Church which separates
clergy from laity results in practically surrender-
ing to the clergy the highest form of lay service.

7 H. N. Bate, "The Vocation of the Laity," in The Church-
man, Vol. XCVIII, No. 14; New York, October 3, 1908, p. 460.

8 J. B. Lightfoot, Dissertations on the Apostolic Age (London:
Macmillan and Company, 1892), p. 210.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN $

The minister must be something more than a
shepherd, and the members something more than
sheep. Both must be doing for the people around
them what Christ would be doing if He were here.
"The human mind could not devise a more effec-
tive way to retard the growth of Christianity than
the promotion of the universal persuasion that the
grace of God can find its way to the hearts of men
solely through the channels of a select few. The
universal priesthood of believers is the cardinal
doctrine of the modern Church. Every true Chris-
tian is a minister, or on the way to become

one."

Each Christian man has his own religion. It is
not a matter of profession or caste. If he has his
own, he is bound to communicate it. As Archbishop
Whately has said, "If my faith be false I ought to
change it; whereas if it be true, I am bound to
propagate it."

Among the vital results of the priesthood of all
believers are: (i) It removes the misconception
that the ministry has a knowledge of divine things
peculiar to itself and an experience of Christ dif-
ferent from that of the laity. (2) It leaves no
ground for doubt that the layman, as well as the
minister, has a vivid consciousness that God Him-
self has given him his work. (3) It places upon
the entire membership of the Christian community
responsibility for the expansion of Christ's King-
dom. (4) It ensures the full impact of the entire

* Edward Judson, quoted by Charles Hatch Sears in his
Edward Judson, Interpreter of God (Philadelphia: The Griffith
and Rowland Press, 1917), p. 50.

io LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Christian community upon the non-Christian
world.

3. The participation of laymen in shaping and
carrying out the program of the Churches has
again and again served as a necessary corrective
to dangers resulting from priestcraft, hierarchical
domination, and professionalism. This, for ex-
ample, was the invaluable service rendered by the
so-called Poor Men of Lyons, a body rallied by
Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, toward the
close of the twelfth century. It was made up of
workmen, mostly poor and obscure, whose con-
trolling idea and passion was literally to follow
Christ. These lay workers proclaimed the message
of Christ in the street, in the market place, in the
fields, and from home to home. By their pure lives
and deeds of kindness as well as by simple exposi-
tion of Christian truth they won the people. In
the course of their unselfish activity they were
called upon to endure fierce and cruel persecutions.
They are survived by the widely known, devoted,
and pronouncedly Christian sect, the Waldensians,
who through long centuries have declared such
faithful witness.

Caspar von Schwenckfeld, Privy Councilor in
Silesia, and his large lay following at the time of
Luther afford another illustration of how the
service of the laity helpfully supplements or com-
plements that of the clergy. At times in the face
of strong opposition from the great Reformer
himself, to whom doubtless more largely than to
any other man the world is indebted for the rescue
and reassertion of the principle of the priesthood

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 11

of all believers; Schwenckfeld insisted upon the
practical application of that principle in the exten-
sion of priestly functions to laymen. 10 He did much
to reveal to the Church of his day the wealth of
experience of the Primitive Church.

Again, the attitude and teaching of the Port
Royalists of France, as they were called, about the
middle of the seventeenth century, constituted a
powerful expression within the Roman Catholic
Church of the lay spirit, especially in their action
against certain prevailing sacerdotal abuses. These
devout contemplative scholars gave themselves to
study and spiritual exercises and earnestly sought
to imitate in life and deed the early Christians.
The brilliant Pascal " was one of the moving
spirits.

The influence of Wyclif in England three cen-
turies earlier was exerted in the same direction but
in far more pronounced degree. He claimed for
temporal authority, as representing the laity,
power over church endowments and even control
of clerical discipline. He stood for the ideal of a
pure priesthood, which he insisted involves in itself
a right of investigation and intervention on the
part of the laity for the purification of the Church.

One result of lay emphasis in the British Isles
and elsewhere was the creation and development
of such denominational bodies as the Baptists, the
Independents or Congregationalists, and the Uni-

^ See Karl Ecke, Schwenckfeld, Luther und der Gedanke
elner apostolischen Reformation (Berlin: Martin Warneck,
1911), pp. s6ff., 72f.

11 See St. Cyres, Stafford Harry Northcote, Viscount, Pascal
. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1909).

12 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

tarians. It was a process in which the clergy in a
sense ceased to make the Church, and the Church
began to make the clergy. In other words, the
whole Church under Christ came to be regarded
as the source of authority.

Right down to the present day there has been
and there still is need of the corrective involved
in the lifting into proper prominence of the lay
function of the Christian community. There has
ever been a tendency on the part of the clergy to
become more and more official and professional,
and with this specialization of clerical work comes
a lowering of the ideals of the laity. This process
leads to the dangerous and weakening miscon-
ception that the layman may bear a lighter cross
and travel an easier path than the clergyman, and
thus that the layman's vocation is somewhat lower
than that of the clergyman. So came about the
unfortunate stratification of Christian callings,
"more deadly, perhaps, than any schism, which
put the monastic life highest of all, the clerical
vocation next, and the lowest that of the mere
Christian, the mere layman. . . . We feel and
speak . . . as if the difference between man and
priest, priest and layman, were a difference in kind,
whereas that between churchman and non-Chris-
tian were only a difference in degree. Shall we
ever come again to feel that to be in or out of the
Body of Christ is an alternative so tremendous
that in comparison with it the difference between
priest and layman dwindles almost into insig-
nificance ?" "

18 H. N. Bate, "The Vocation of the Laity," in The Church-
man, Vol. XCVIII, No. 14; New York, October 3, 1908, p. 461.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 13

4. Laymen have furnished to the Christian
cause lay organizations and movements of life-
giving and transforming power. They have sprung
up across the centuries, often under lay initiative.
Attention has already been called to some of
these manifestations, and a few others may now be
mentioned. The Benedictine Order at once sug-
gests itself. St. Benedict himself was probably a
layman ; at any rate it is certain he was not a
priest. Ultimately the Benedictines were divided
between monks who were cleric and those who
were not. The lay brothers were entrusted with
the more menial work of the monastery and the
duties which involved contact with the outside
world. In some communities the lay members out-
number the priests. Before the middle of the four-
teenth century the members of this order could
be found in almost every country of Western and
Northern Europe. 18

The Order of the Franciscans, or Little
Brothers of the Poor, was initiated by St. Francis
of Assisi in 1209, when he was but twenty-seven
years old. "He found his vocation whilst listening
to that passage in the Gospels: 'Provide neither
gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip
for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes,
nor yet staves. And as ye go, preach, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 'Hard wrestling
with his own heart, profound dissatisfaction and
weariness with the world, bitter persecution, and
yearning sympathy with all sorrow, had already

18 See "The Benedictine Order," in The Catholic Encyclo-
pedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitu-
tion, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church
(New York: Robert Appleton Co., 1912).

14 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

prepared him for his life-work. Boundless love of
Christ, and never-ceasing wonder at His grace, in-
spired him to proclaim redeeming mercy to all.
Everywhere he began his preaching with the salu-
tation, The Peace of God be with you.' " " He
went forth possessing literally nothing. His fol-
lowers had all things in common. The lay, or
"third," order of the Franciscans, known as the
Brothers and Sisters of Penance, was founded by
him, according to tradition, in 1221. The Francis-
can Order spread quickly over Italy and even-
tually all over the world. At one time it was said
to embrace over 100,000 members; but now it
numbers less than 30,000. This movement was
nothing less than a great social and spiritual revo-
lution in a grossly materialistic age. Although it
has had periods of reaction and at times degen-
eration, it did much in its best days to make the
Christian religion a great lay force. Recent cele-
brations and appraisals show that the influence of
its founder remains undimmed after the lapse of
seven centuries.

St. Dominic, although a priest, was the founder
of another great third order, or company of lay
workers. He himself was a preacher of great
power and traveled widely. His order grew to
large dimensions and acquired great wealth. In
the course of time the order degenerated, largely
as a result of the avarice, luxury, idleness, and
political activity of so many of its members. Not-

14 John Telford, A History of Lay Preaching in the Christian
Church (London: Charles H. Kelly, 1897), p. 43. In the latter
part of the excerpt the author is quoting from The London.
Quarterly Review, n.s., Vol. VIII, p. 33.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 15

withstanding all its faults it did much to bring the
Church into touch with the masses. At the begin-
ning of the present century the tertiaries or lay
members of this order carried on their beneficent
activity through more than fifty congregations
with nearly one thousand different establishments
and over 20,000 members scattered in all parts of
the world."

The Lollard Movement, 18 although known for
years on the Continent for its spiritual activity,
accomplished its greatest work in England in the
latter part of the- fourteenth century. The name
was applied to more or less closely organized
groups which worked among the people. At times
they were subjected to severe persecution. They
owed much to the teaching and influential advo-
cacy of Wyclif.

The Brethren of the Common Life, initiated
toward the close of the fourteenth century by
Gerard Groote, the Dutch lay evangelist, con-
sisted of groups of laymen who lived in "brother-
houses" throughout Holland and Germany. Tak-
ing no vows and mingling freely with the world
for purposes of service, they provided the com-
mon people with copies of the Scriptures and other
holy books, reinforced and to a considerable extent
reformed the schools for free instruction in read-
ing and writing, and in a large measure prepared

"See "The Order of Preachers," in The Catholic Encyclo-
pedia:, An International Work of Reference on the Constitution,
Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church (New
York: Robert Appleton Co., 1912).

16 See Rufus M. Jones, "The Pre-Reformation in England:
Wyclif and the Lollards," in his Studies in Mystical Religion
(London: Macmillan and Co., 1923), Chapter XV.

16 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the way, especially in the Netherlands, for the re-
ligious revival of the sixteenth century. The author
of The Imitation of Christ received his religious
education in the schools of the Brethren of the
Common Life. 17

The Anabaptists or Mennonites constituted one
of the most vital and forceful movements of the
sixteenth century. They afford us a demonstration
of genuine lay Christianity. Prominent among
the early leaders was Johannes Denck, who suc-
ceeded in a few years in forming a spiritual fel-
lowship or apostolic brotherhood in Augsburg,
Nuremburg, Strassburg, Basel, and other centers.
Later came Menno Simons, the real founder of
the Mennonites, who led the Anabaptist groups
in the Netherlands. This body was much like the
Waldensians but probably not connected with
them. 18 The Mennonites rejected an official clergy,
and for two hundred years were without an in-
stitution for training preachers. Under the fierce
persecution of the Duke of Alba thousands were
killed. In spite of these sufferings they developed
a courageous, contagious, and conquering faith.
The movement spread to England and profoundly
influenced the Independents. The Mennonites
emphasized the "inner Word" as well as the
"outer Word" and stood for separation of Church
and State, and for free lay religion. Every mem-

17 See S. Harvey Gem, "Brethren of the Common Life," in
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings
and Others (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908-27),
Vol. II, pp. 839ff.

18 See A. M. Cramer, Het Leven en de Verrigtingen van
Menno Simons (Amsterdam: Johannes Miiller, 1837), pp. izff.,
16.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 17

ber of the brotherhood regarded it as his duty
to propagate the living Word. Every traveling
artisan as soon as he received baptism devoted
himself to the service of his Lord. *

The Quakers, or Society of Friends, possibly
more than any other religious denomination in the
modern centuries, have in their teaching and in
their life illustrated or demonstrated that the
Church is a real lay fellowship. In fact they have
no ordained clergy. Their "public Friends," as
their ministers are called, spend their lives in ordi-
nary vocations and local service, giving time vol- f
untarily. Fox is often spoken of as the founder
of the Society, but he never thought of himself as
the founder of a sect. He did not originate the
principle of "the inward light." Thomas Miinzer,
who had been powerfully influenced by John
Tauler, suggested "the inward light." " Sebas-
tian Franck 80 took up this vital idea and in turn
had a great influence upon Jacob Boehme, one of
the great prophets of "the inward light." His
writings and biography widely circulated in Eng-
land made a profound impression upon Fox, the
inspired leader of his own and subsequent gener-
ations of the Quakers of the English-speaking
world. This body identifies religion with com-
munion with God and a life of practical righteous-
ness. It ever works for the restoration of primi-
tive or apostolic Christianity. Fox did his utmost

19 See Rufus M. Jones, George Fox, Seeker and Friend (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1930), pp. 6zff.

< ao See Heinrich Ziegler, "Sebastian Franck' s Bedeutung fur
die Entwickelung des Protestantismus," in Zeitschrlft fiir vns-
senschaftliche Theologie, Vol. L, No. i ; Leipzig, 1907.

i8 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

to foster lay preaching. Although the numbers
of their membership have never been great, their
influence has been widely pervasive and profound,
never more so than to-day.

5. One of the greatest contributions which lay-
men have made to Christianity, especially in mod-
ern times, has been made by many brotherhoods,
guilds, and other men's societies within the Prot-
estant communion. This point would assume
greatly added significance were the various lay
orders, fraternities, and other organizations of the
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox com-
munions included. The so-called "Catholic Action,"
for example, a present-day movement toward an
amalgamation of all Roman Catholic forces for
the Christian renewal of human society, is stress-
ing with papal sanction lay participation in the
hierarchical apostolate." In nearly every Protes-
tant denomination in the Anglo-Saxon countries
of Europe, North America, and Australasia, there
have been formed within the past few decades or-
ganizations of their lay members. To a much less
extent similar agencies have been established in
Protestant bodies of other countries. This move-
ment has gathered volume and momentum from
decade to decade.

Two of the earliest and most effective of these
Christian men's societies were the Brotherhood of
St. Andrew of the Protestant Episcopal Church of
the United States of America, and the Church of

" See H. Pfisterer, "Katholische Aktion und katholische Welt-
mission," in Evangelisches Missionsmagazin, Vol. LXXIV, No.
4; Basel, April, 1930.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 19

England Men's Society of Great Britain and Ire-
land. The former might still be pointed to as the
one which on the whole has maintained for the
longest period a consistent record of high efficiency
and usefulness.

The combined membership of all these Protes-
tant men's organizations in Anglo-Saxon countries
exceeds 2,000,000, although it may be questioned
whether the number would reach 1,000,000 of
members who maintain such high standards as
obtain in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Gener-
ally speaking, the thousands of local branches of
these societies are very loosely organized and have
an inadequately trained leadership. As a rule their
objectives embrace two or more of the following:

To promote intimate spiritual fellowship.

To foster the spirit and practice of Christian
worship.

To cultivate loyalty to the Church.

To draw men into the Church.

To study the fields, history, work, and problems
of the Church.

To further the social service and missionary
program of the Church.

To facilitate union with similar bodies of lay-
men.

Notwithstanding the limitations and shortcom-
ings of these societies they have constituted one of
the most fruitful aspects of the modern life of
the Christian Church.

Among the auxiliary agencies of the Protestant

20 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

communion there has been none which within a
short time has made so strong an appeal to the
imagination and called out to such an extent the
latent energies of laymen as did the Laymen's
Missionary Movement none with the possible
exception of the Student Volunteer Movement to
which the Laymen's Movement owes the sugges-
tion leading to its own initiation. This lay under-
taking may properly be regarded as a movement
rather than a formal organization. From the be-
ginning in 1906 it had the simplest of machinery
and was essentially a voluntary enterprise. It was
interdenominational and international in composi-
tion, scope, and program. It came into being not
to raise funds or administer them, or to send out
missionaries. Its distinctive purpose was to enlist
the lay forces of the Churches to do all in their
power to further the world-wide extension of the
Kingdom of Christ. During the World War the
Movement in its original form merged its activ-
ities largely into various denominational and
national channels. In a little over a decade it had
achieved the following among other significant
results :

Its greatest single contribution was to lift into
a place of central prominence the distinctive re-
sponsibility of laymen for furthering the world
mission of Christianity.

It succeeded in blending to a marked degree the
knowledge, insight, outlook, constructive ability,
and influence of the all-too-divided lay forces of
North America.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 21

It established a central clearing-house, thus
making widely available these combined forces.

It afforded for multitudes a mount of vision
from which for the first time they came to see the
kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms
of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the chains of conferences which it conducted,
embracing nearly all the great cities of the United
States and Canada, hundreds of thousands of men
heard and heeded the world call.

It afforded to tens of thousands of these men
practical outlets for their new-found vision and
passion.

It discovered, trained, and set to work hundreds
of new, effective advocates for the cause of world
missions.

Indirectly it augmented enormously the financial
resources of the mission boards and Churches.
There was a vast increase in the number of givers
to missions as a result of the more masterly study
of the problems of ways and means. It is esti-
mated that in some denominations men's contribu-
tions to missions were quadrupled.

The home-base activities of the Churches ex-
perienced a powerful reflex influence.

It may be said that virtually all 'existing, re-
lated agencies of the Churches were strengthened
as a result of this larger liberation of latent lay
energies.

The way was prepared for new movements of
significance some denominational, some interde-
nominational. Denominational brotherhoods were

22 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

'greatly stimulated ; large, forward-looking, aggres-
sive programs were bequeathed to them.

A great impetus was given to the cause of coop-
eration and unity. Above all, the way has been
prepared for the evolution of plans and means
which will far transcend anything hitherto accom-
plished or now existing for coping with the unprec-
edented situation that now confronts the world-
wide Christian mission.

The Young Men's Christian Association, al-
though founded in England as recently as 1844
and introduced into North America in 1851, has
already spread to all parts of the world, and is
recognized as possibly the greatest lay movement
since the days of the Primitive Church. Its mem-
bership embraces more than 1,500,000 in over
10,000 branches, planted in some fifty countries.
This does not take account of several millions of
other men who in their youth were identified with
the movement and who within the sphere of their
daily calling are bringing to bear on life's prob-
lems the principles and ideals inculcated by the
Association. The numerical aspect, however, is
not the most important. Across three-quarters of
a century the Association has made notable con-
tributions.

It has helped to conserve for the Churches in
all lands where it is established that priceless asset
the young manhood and boyhood.

It has afforded these virile forces of the nations
adequate outlets for their unselfish impulses and
purposes.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 23

It has emphasized before the world and done
much to realize a strong and attractive type of
manhood a type characterized by reality, open-
mindedness, determination to grow, the spirit of
service and cooperation, and loyalty to Christ. Its
program stands for the development of symmetri-
cal personality body, mind, and spirit. Some of
the most discerning minds regard this, which in
reality is the principle of the incarnation, as the
most distinctive contribution of the Young Men's
Christian Association.

In working out and applying this ideal the move-
ment has developed an organization, varied agen-
cies, methods, techniques, and processes which
have enabled it to become with ever-increasing
effectiveness and helpfulness all things unto all
classes or groups of men. It would be difficult to
name an organization which has been carried to
such a high stage of specialization, or has illus-
trated such a wide and interesting range of adapta-
tion, and at the same time been attended with such
beneficent results.

In accomplishing its high ends it has evolved a
strategy which reveals rare recognition of the
supreme advantage of entering certain fields, con-
centrating attention on certain centers and groups,
employing certain ways and means, utilizing cer-
tain personalities. In other words, the Association
has specialized in the study of priorities.

Its practice has been to consolidate the all-too-
scattered Christian forces in a given community
and to bring their combined impact to bear upon

24 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the influences which tend to blast character and
disintegrate faith. It has waged aggressive war-
fare against the enemies of society.

Throughout its history the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association has carried forward through in-
timate personal contacts as well as in wide-flung,
more highly organized and aggressive efforts a
more or less continuous and, on the whole, a fruit-
ful campaign of evangelism. In fact, its central or
governing objective in all lands has been that of
confronting young men and boys with the Living
Christ. Thus in the midst of a materialistic age
and while itself undergoing an unprecedented de-
velopment of material equipment and financial
resources, it has afforded an impressive demonstra-
tion of the reality and supremacy of the spiritual
facts and forces.

It has done much to break down barriers be-
tween man and man and to fuse together in under-
standing, mutual confidence, friendly fellowship,
and practical cooperation conflicting groups of
society. Thus the Association has become a recog-
nized factor in fostering right relations in indus-
try as well as internationally and inter-racially.

The leaders of the various branches of the Prot-
estant communion, and increasingly of other com-
munions, have borne testimony to the generous way
in which the Association has placed at the disposal
of the Churches its experience, its equipment, its
expert leadership, and its other resources.

Some consider that the by-products of the work
of the Association transcend in influence what it
has achieved in discharging its distinctive function

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 25

the winning and upbuilding of young men and
boys and relating them to the service of the
Church and the world. They point out that while
carrying out this specific mission, the Association
has had a powerful direct or indirect influence on
the creation and development of such important
movements as the Evangelical Alliance, the Young
Women's Christian Association, the Young Peo-
ple's Society of Christian Endeavor, the Inter-
Seminary Missionary Alliance, the Student Volun-
teer Movement, the World's Student Christian
Federation, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and
various other interdenominational movements and
denominational brotherhoods.

Moreover, its part in training and furnishing so
many of the leaders of the religious and other con-
structive bodies, lay and clerical, has been truly
notable.

Mention should also be made of its service in
meeting great human needs in the wake of stag-
gering disasters, such as the San Francisco and
Japan earthquakes.

It is already apparent, and time will doubtless
accentuate its significance, that in some ways the
crowning contribution of the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association has been that rendered in the
realm of Christian unity. By its interdenomina-
tional platform, by its ecumenical program, by its
drawing together in close friendship during the
most plastic years of their lives the future leaders
of all Christian communions, and by its actually
uniting in a triumphant brotherhood for warfare
against common enemies the men of every Chris-

26 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

tian name, it is doing much to afford the convincing
apologetic which Christ had in mind when He
prayed "that they all may be one . . . that the
world may believe."

6. Another development achieved by laymen,
largely but not exclusively a product of the Young
Men's Christian Association, has been that of
facilitating the progress of the Christian religion
among special groups or classes of men. One of
the best illustrations is that of the ministry ren-
dered by the Association among the men in armies
and navies in recent wars, such as the work among
the forces on both sides of the American Civil
War, among Japanese troops in the war with
Russia, among the American forces in the Spanish-
American War, and among the British forces in
the South African War. The outstanding under-
taking of this kind was that of the same organiza-
tion on behalf of the more than 20,000,000 men
in the fighting forces and in prisoner-of-war camps
in connection with the World War. It is recog-
nized that here was a greatly needed and vitally
important service which from the nature of the
case could best, if not only, be fulfilled by a lay
organization. The physical, social, cultural, and
spiritual service rendered under war conditions
proved to be so helpful that it inevitably led to
the establishment of similar work on a peace-time
basis among the standing or permanent forces.
Furthermore, the conspicuous success of this war
work has indirectly served as the means of intro-
ducing the Association among civilians in a number
of countries.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 27

The vast and ever-increasing number of men
engaged in railway and other forms of transpor-
tation activities suggests another field which was
for a long period almost completely neglected.
Not until the Young Men's Christian Associations
of North America addressed themselves to the
problem was this needy field cultivated. Now this
lay movement has, in the United States and Canada
alone, 215 Associations located at terminal and
division points on some sixty different railroad sys-
tems, with a membership of approximately 120,-
ooo, and indirectly rendering Christian ministry to
much larger numbers. The example of this work
on the American continent has stimulated like
service under various agencies in different parts
of the Occident and the Orient. The practical
value- and spiritual significance of this enterprise
are recognized when we remind ourselves that to
no other class of men is committed such great
responsibility for human life and property. What
could be more important than such an effort cal-
culated to influence aright their character and
relationships ?

The success and indispensability of this lay
service in the field of transportation has proved to
be a contagious example and has led in recent years
to the introduction of similar Christian activity in
many other fields of industry. In this time of in-
dustrial conflict one cannot fail to recognize the
providential mission of a movement which in many
places has served to unite employers and employees
in fellowship, mutual service, and cooperative
effort.

28 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Through all the Christian centuries there has
been recognition of the strategic importance of
reaching the student communities for Christ and
His program. Under Christian initiative different
factors have been employed to achieve this objec-
tive. In schools, colleges, and universities con-
ducted under Christian auspices the entire life of
the institution curriculum, teaching, discipline,
ordered worship, customs is regulated with this
governing purpose in view. But even under such
circumstances and when all is done that can be
done by the official management, or those in
authority, experience has shown the necessity and
desirability, from every point of view, of encour-
aging and heartily fostering the organization and
activity of voluntary Christian societies by the
students themselves.

As to the large and growing number of govern-
ment educational institutions and others of a secu-
lar or non-Christian character, it must as a rule be
left to voluntary student agencies within, and other
Christian agencies outside, the institution to exert
the desired Christian influence. We find, therefore,
in the records of universities and other higher
schools that bands of Christian students have from
time to time been formed for the cultivation of the
spiritual life and for rendering service among their
comrades or in the surrounding community. Some
of these groups are of great historic significance,
having initiated notable movements in the life of
the Church.

Not until recent decades have such isolated and
at times widely scattered societies been bound to-

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 29

gether into national and international movements.
Beginning in the latter part of the nineteenth cen-
tury with the student Christian movement of the
United States and Canada the number of these
movements has multiplied, notably under the
leadership of the World's Student Christian Fed-
eration. This federation was formed in 1895 by
the union of the five student Christian movements
then in existence. It how embraces over thirty
countries with branches in more than 3,000 institu-
tions, and has a membership of fully 300,000 stu-
dents. These are essentially lay movements for,
with the exception of the students in a few scores
of divinity schools, their membership, so far as
young men are concerned, is composed largely of
those who are to devote themselves to lay pursuits.

Judged by results already visible these voluntary
and, generally speaking, lay societies and move-
ments constitute the most dynamic and truly cre-
ative factor in the religious life of the student com-
munities across the world. It would be difficult to
overstate their far-reaching influence on the lay
leadership of the Churches, for a vastly dispropor-
tionate number of the recognized lay leaders in the
various walks of life came in their undergraduate
days under the power of the ideals, spirit, and
activities of these societies.

7. Laymen have been moving spirits in some
of the most significant evangelistic movements of
the Churches. As we have seen, this was notably
true of the great Wesleyan revival of the eight-
eenth century. Had there been eliminated from
that movement the activities of the thousands of

30 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

lay preachers and the witness-bearing of the multi-
tude of individual converts in the homes, fields,
mines, factories, offices, and shops this all-pervasive
and profoundly transforming spiritual awakening
would have been impossible.

Lay leadership and participation were markedly
in evidence in the great revivals which so mightily
moved leading cities of America in the middle of
the nineteenth century. Boston, New York, Phila-
delphia, Baltimore, Louisville, and other com-
munities were shaken to the center. The Churches
presented a united front. Vast union prayer meet-
ings attended by from 3,000 to 5,000 were held
from day to day, devoted almost entirely to inter-
cession. But quite as operative among the causes
of these memorable awakenings was the fact that
the laity as well as the clergy threw themselves
with such complete abandon into the effort. An
outstanding figure in the evangelical movement of
his day was Charles G. Finney. He was a recog-
nized layman, having turned from the legal pro-
fession under deep religious conviction to do the
work of an evangelist. He had a tremendous hold
on men of large affairs, strong personality, and
intellectual ability, and all his life worked largely
through laymen. To this day, the study of his
work abounds in lessons as well as quickening im-
pulse for those who would get at the secret of
liberating and utilizing the latent lay forces of
Christianity.

The greatest revivals which have taken place on
both sides of the Atlantic within the memory of
people now living were those along the pathway
of the evangelistic activity of Dwight L. Moody.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 31

Judged by every test, he was the chief evangelist
of modern times. As a youth he was led into the
Christian life by a lay Sunday-school worker. He
was trained as a lay worker. He remained a lay-
man all his life. His evangelistic power gathered
momentum with the years. His message came with
equal force whether addressed to the leading men
of industry, commerce, and finance, or to the
masses of workingmen, or to the students in the
principal universities. Many who are now pillars
in the Churches of England, Scotland, Canada, and
the United States were converted in his meetings.
While he preached a pronouncedly individualistic
Gospel, he was also true to its social implications.
Few men, laymen or clergymen, have more
mightily shaken the social conscience. His unique
distinction was his ability to enlist strong laymen
to devote their powers of personality, influence,
advocacy, time, and money to Christian service.

The Men and Religion Movement of twenty
years ago, which so deeply stirred the laymen of
North America, Australasia, and South Africa,
was a demonstration of the responsiveness of men
of modern times to the living message. It was
initiated by laymen. While it commanded the
sympathetic and effective collaboration of eminent
clergymen, its leadership throughout was largely
in the hands of laymen. In North America alone
the campaign through four teams reached sixty
major or key cities and 1,500 surrounding cities
and towns, and brought its message to over 1,500,-
ooo men. It worked through existing organiza-
tions, the Churches and their auxiliary agencies, a
fact which goes far to explain the abiding char-

32 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

acter of the results. The cardinal points in the
program in each center were evangelism, Bible
study, boys' work, social service, and Christian
unity. Basic to the campaign proper was the survey
of the field its extent, characteristics, needs, ad-
verse factors, favoring influences, resources, possi-
bilities. Without doubt the attention of large num-
bers of men who had been indifferent to the claims
of religion was arrested. The meetings were at-
tended with thousands of conversions. Large acces-
sions were secured for the voluntary working
forces of the Churches, and many new lay leaders
were enlisted.

The greatest ingatherings of students into the
Kingdom of God in the life of the colleges and
universities, whether of Europe, North America,
Asia, or Australasia, have been in the past few
decades. We recall the work of Henry Drum-
mond in the universities of Scotland and Australia ;
the fruitful labors of Count Piickler, Mockert,
Witt, Heim, and Lilje in Germany; of Allier,
Monnier, Grauss, and Maury in the universities of
France and the Balkans; of Baron Nicolay in
Russia; of Cairns, Gray, the Bishop of London,
the Archbishop of York, and many another in the
English universities ; of Hoffmann among the stu-
dents of the Baltic States and many other fields of
Europe; of Moody, Sayford, Bosworth, Speer,
Hugh Beaver, Horace Rose, Weatherf ord, Elliott,
Hurrey, Henry Wright, and a score of others
among the students of America; of Monzo and
John Mackay in Latin America ; of Kali Charan
Banurji, Satthianadhan, Tilak, Farquhar, K. T.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 33

Paul, and Stanley Jones in India ; of C. T. Wang,
Ding Li-mei, David Yui, Chang Po-ling, and T. Z.
Koo in China ; of Bishop Honda, Sasamori, Sasao,
Ebara, Koike, Yoshino, Nitobe, Uemura, and
Kagawa in Japan ; of Yun Chi Ho and Hugh Cynn
in Korea ; of Robert Wilder, Sherwood Eddy, and
the secretaries of the World's Student Christian
Federation in student centers all over the world.
These intensive campaigns have been conducted in
literally hundreds of universities, and often year
after year in the same university. Moreover,
there have been nation-wide evangelistic move-
ments, especially in Japan and China, each of
which has resulted in the winning of thousands of
students to allegiance to Christ. It is a striking
fact that there is such a large proportion of lay-
men among these student evangelists who have
been so much in demand.

One of the remarkable evangelistic undertak-
ings of the present day is the Kingdom of God
Campaign in Japan, now entering upon its third
year. It is most instructive from every point of
view and likewise most stimulating to faith.
Though its truly prophetic leader, Dr. Kagawa,
is an ordained minister, one of its distinctive fea-
tures is the large participation of laymen. With
deep conviction Kagawa has set out to enlist and
train 5,000 laymen of many walks of life who
would give generously of their time to aggressive
evangelistic work. Doubtless here lies the secret
of the widely permeating influence of the cam-
paign and of its strong appeal to men.

8. Laymen have secured vast sums of money

34 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

and related them to the expanding plans of the
Kingdom of God. Confining ourselves in this
connection to the United States of America, we
may note the report that in 1929, the latest year
of which we have fairly complete records, there
was given to altruistic causes over $2,450,000,-
ooo." A study of sources makes it clear that a
disproportionately large part of this sum was con-
tributed by Christian lay men and women. Fully
$640,000,000 was given toward Protestant
Churches alone. An examination of the giving
toward educational institutions in general and
toward community chests, not to mention distinc-
tively Christian educational and philanthropic
projects, shows impressively what a large propor-
tion of such funds is provided by churchmen. The
same could be said of the sources of benevolence
in Canada, the British Isles, Australasia, and cer-
tain of the countries of the European continent. A
most interesting exhibit could be made in demon-
stration of the fact that a large number of the
greatest philanthropists of modern times have
been Christian laymen. Quite as impressive would
be the enormous volume representing the aggre-
gate of the gifts of multitudes of lay donors of
moderate means and of those of very small finan-
cial ability.

Apart from their example as givers, we are
indebted to laymen primarily for their large and
indispensable share in securing the funds needed
for carrying out the Christian program. Among

"See "A New Record in Philanthropy," in The Federal
Council Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 6; New York, June, 1930, p. 28.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 35

them we find most of the great money-raisers, for
example, Moody, Booker T. Washington, scores
of university officials, and directors of community-
chest campaigns. The lay and secretarial leaders
of the Young Men's Christian Association, all of
whom are laymen of standing in their respective
Churches, have in recent years reduced money-
raising for unselfish causes to a science. In North
America alone they have, largely within the past
thirty years, secured and invested in permanent
properties for the Association over $230,000,000.
Besides this they have raised for war work, and
for their foreign extension plans, upwards of
$300,000,000 more. They have worked out the
methodology for ensuring the largest, most coop-
erative, and most helpful giving in the community
or nation for patriotic, social, and religious objects.
In doing this they have not only set an example
of lay service but have trained many thousands
of laymen who to-day are rendering similar service
in the Churches and in connection with other con-
structive undertakings.

The contribution which laymen have made in
evolving and making effective the Christian stew-
ardship program of the different Churches has
been of the most fundamental importance. More
than any other one thing this has served to lay the
foundation for the Christian program near and
far in habits of systematic, proportionate, sacri-
ficial giving. Nor should we overlook the deeper
lessons which have been taught by lay leaders of
great faith missions and Christian philanthropies,
for example, George Miiller and Hudson Taylor.

36 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

9. One of the most encouraging developments
in the life of the Church is the growing sense of so-
cial interest and obligation which laymen are mani-
festing. This is seen in the increased attention and
leadership they are giving to the discussion of the
social problems in the open forums, men's Bible
classes, and clubs of the Churches. They have also
been an important factor in the formulation of the
social creeds of the various religious bodies. Some
of the most courageous and prophetic leads in the
realm of social thinking and advocacy in univer-
sity chairs in recent times have been afforded by
such churchmen as Professors Ely, Tawney, Hob-
house, Jenks, Andrews, and Ellwood. Even more
significant and influential have been the realistic
attitude and practice of increasing numbers of men
prominent in industry and commerce. Happily
Rowntree, Cadbury, and Eagan are not isolated
instances of laymen who have sincerely and hero-
ically applied to the conduct of their own business
concerns the principles and spirit of Christ. As
Mr. Seebohm Rowntree, the English manufac-
turer, stated while in New York, "As a follower
of Jesus, I cannot go to sleep in comfort at night,
until I know that conditions in my plant are such
that I should be glad to see any one of my chil-
dren take any position as a laborer in the plant." "

John J. Eagan, President of the American Cast
Iron Pipe Company, during his lifetime reorgan-
ized his business and successfully conducted it on a

'* Quoted by John J. Eagan in his "An Employer's View of
the Church's Function in Relation to Industry," in The Annals
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.
CIII, No. 192; Philadelphia, September, 1922, p. 104.

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 37

truly Christian basis, and willed the common stock
of the company of which he was owner to a trust
to be administered in the interest of his workers,
closing his will with these words, "To insure service
both to the public and to labor on the basis of the
Golden Rule given by our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ." Not long before his death he thus
summed up his conviction and social gospel :

So long as 6,000,000 unemployed can walk our streets
in winter, so long as the majority of the 25,000,000
wage-earners of the United States live in constant fear of
unemployment and in dread of the inevitable want for
their families, if accident or death removes the wage-
earner, so long as there is one cold, hungry child, or one
forced to work, or a baby deprived of its mother by the
lack of a living wage, so long as babies are dying as the
result of industrial conditions, the function of the Church
in relation to industry is crystal clear.

This I conceive to be the all-inclusive function of the
Church, to show forth the living Christ, His power, and
love in our lives.

No untried path lies before us. Christ has traveled
and marked the way with His cross. I know no other
for the Church, which He promised should break the
very "gates of Hell."

... Has not the time come for the Church, in His
name and strength, to smash the gates of the industrial
hell on earth and release the mothers and babies, the men,
women, and children who suffer therein?

This, surely, is the function of the Church. 94

10. Laymen have furnished distinguished lead-
ership and powerful auxiliary forces for waging

14 John J. Eagan, "An Employer's View of the Church's
Function in Relation to Industry," in The Annals of the Ameri-
can Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. CIII, No.
192; Philadelphia, September, 1922, p. 104.

3 8 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

triumphant warfare against giant evils. Loring
Brace in his book, Gesta Christi, which made such
an impression a generation ago, showed convinc-
ingly that we could trace to Christianity virtually
all the great philanthropies and movements for
human betterment in Europe and America. Dr.
James S. Dennis in his volumes on Missions and
Social Progress, which appeared some thirty years
ago, rendered a similar service with reference to
the so-called non-Christian world. There is need
of a comprehensive work which will set forth the
part that Christians have played during recent
decades in combating the great social enemies of
mankind. In any such conspectus it will be found
that laymen have had an indispensable role. This
has been conspicuously true in the efforts dealing
with intemperance, the opium curse, the social evil,
forced labor, and the still considerable remnants
of human slavery. In the conflict with diseases
which have wrought such terrible havoc among the
hundreds of millions of Asia and Africa a brilliant
chapter has been written by the medical mission-
aries and eminent Christian civilians, also by agen-
cies such as the China Medical Board and the
International Health Board of the Rockefeller
Foundation, which though not denominated Chris-
tian agencies owe their origin to the Christian im-
pulse and are informed by the Christian principles
and spirit.

Once more let it be emphasized also that in the
face of grave economic injustices and despite the
impossible burdens of poverty, the doors of hope
in the way of effective legislative action have been

CONTRIBUTION OF LAYMEN 39

opened by Christian statesmen such as Bright and
Shaftesbury in Britain, as well as by Christian pub-
licists and by Christian leaders in industry. Again,
in resisting down-grade tendencies in the political
life of nations and lifting the moral level of public
life in general, what do not the opening years of
the century owe to Christian statesmen in politics
such as Bryce in Britain; Kuyper SB in Holland;
Masaryk in Czecho-Slovakia ; Roosevelt in the
United States? Once more, in warfare against
war and in ushering in nothing less than a new
epoch in the international life of the world, we are
preeminently indebted to a leadership informed
and animated by the mind of Christ. We need only
recall such names as Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd
George, Lord Robert Cecil, Elihu Root, Charles
Evans Hughes, Ramsay MacDonald, Frank B.
Kellogg, Herbert Hoover, N. W. Rowell, and
General Smuts Christian laymen all who have
wrought mightily to incorporate the principles of
Christ into international relations.

" Technically Dr. Kuyper was not a layman. Much of the
activity in which he was prominently engaged as university
professor and rector, editor, member of parliament, and premier
was in the nature of lay service.

II

THE NEED OF AUGMENTING THE LAY

FORCES

VIEWED numerically the lay forces of Chris-
tianity exceed those of any of the non-Christian
faiths. If we confine our view to the Protestant
communion the resources are enormous. It is a
startling fact, however, that these energies are so
largely dormant. In each of a score of Protestant
denominations there are a sufficient number of
Christians who, if mobilized and their hidden
powers released, could meet the exacting spiritual
demands of the present world situation. If one
entertains doubt on this point he need only recall
vividly the faith and achievements of the small,
unacknowledged, despised band of Christians who
went forth on the Day of Pentecost.

Is it putting it too strongly to say that within
the Protestant communion, as well as the Roman
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, there are great
multitudes who give the impression that they have
become atrophied through lack of exercise of their
powers? Thus incomparably the greatest and
most important work in the world the extension
of the reign of Christ languishes and, in parts of
the world, confronts grave peril and possible dis-

40

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 41

aster. The need of the hour is an awakening of
the laymen of all the Churches to a realization
of their latent energies and their pressing respon-
sibility and the relating of that boundless power
to the program of the Living Christ.

I. There is need of more extensive liberation
of the lay forces in order to ensure that the Church
be true to its distinctive character and Christ-
appointed mission. What is the Christian Church ?
Who compose it? What is its distinctive char-
acter? It is a visible Divine Society all whose
members are to help interpret, demonstrate, and
carry out the commands, teachings, principles, and
work of Christ. Were not His commands and
teachings directed to all His followers, down
through the generations? Was not His example
to be followed by all who bear His name? Was
this not the interpretation of those who lived
nearest Him? Has this not been characteristic of
the Churches in every age and in every field where
they have had real transforming and propagating
power?

Evidently there has been a widely prevailing
and grave misconception among laymen as to what
it means to be a church member. To judge by
what we see, many of them apparently regard the
Church as a society in which few speak and many
listen. Others give the impression that they look
upon the Church as a society were a few speak and
work while the majority listen and make financial
contributions. In far too many instances what is
called the spiritual work is carried on by the or-
dained minister, while the layman is left to attend

42 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

to his own religious life and to the so-called busi-
ness affairs of the Church. Dr. Robert E. Speer
aptly expresses the layman's obligation in the fol-
lowing terms :

Any man who has a religion is bound to do one of two
things with it, change it or spread it. If it isn't true, he
must give it up. If it is true, he must give it away. This
is not the duty of ministers only. Religion is not an affair
of a profession or of a caste. . . .

The minister is to be simply colonel of the regiment.
The real fighting is to be done by the men in the ranks
who carry the guns. No ideal could be more non-Chris-
tian or more irrational than that the religious colonel is
engaged to do the fighting for his men, while they sit at
ease. And yet, perhaps, there is one idea current which
is more absurd still. That is, that there is to be no fight-
ing at all, but that the colonel is paid to spend his time
solacing his regiment, or giving it gentle, educative in-
struction, not destined ever to result in any downright,
manly effort on the part of the whole regiment to do
anything against the enemy. 1

When the elder Beecher was asked why his min-
istry at Park Street was so successful he said, "I
preach on Sunday, but I have 450 men and women
who go out every day in the week to translate into
life and service the message which I have sought
to lodge in their hearts." The effort to convert
the world through an official class has continued so
long that the great majority of the laity have
never had or have lost the sense of their own
Christ-appointed mission. The triumphant spread
of the Christian faith waits on the conversion of

1 The Laymarts Duty to Propagate His Religion (New York:
The Church League, 1929).

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 43

the laity from passive to active membership in
Christ and His Church. When this change from
merely passive profession to living daily service
has been effected its power will be resistless.

2. Lay initiative, sense of responsibility, and
full-hearted participation are necessary to ensure
the proper religious development of the laymen
themselves; that is to say, to ensure growth in
Christian knowledge, in faith, in Christlike char-
acter, in genuine serviceableness to others, and, as
a result, in contagious influence and propagating
power. Does this not characterize the most useful
laymen we have known? What is the secret of
their development and influence? They had re-
ceived wise spiritual guidance and been built up in
the Christian faith. They had discovered that the
Christian religion is a life, and, therefore, that it
can be realized only by being lived or practised.
The religion of Christ is primarily a matter of the
will. Religious knowledge, conviction, and emo-
tion require expression in service, or character be-
comes untrue and faith unreal. A multitude of lay-
men are to-day in serious danger. It is positively
perilous for them to hear more sermons, attend
more Bible classes and open forums, and read
more religious and ethical works, unless accom-
panying it all there be afforded day by day an ade-
quate outlet for their new-found truth and newly
experienced emotion in definite witness-bearing,
unselfish service to others, and resolute warfare
against evil.

It is asserted that in many communities nine-
tenths of the work of the Churches is done by one-

44 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

tenth of the members. So far as the male members
are concerned this is probably true. It is to be
feared that the attitude of far too many of them
is that described by Dr. Storrs in the following
anecdote :

A man who had come from the country to New York
City, went to the rector of an Episcopal Church who had
several difficult and important enterprises on his hands.
"Now," said the rector to the man, "I would like to have
you take hold of that." The man said he did not have
time to attend to it. "Well then, this," said the rector.
"No," said the man, he was engaged on that evening.
Said he : "Rector, to tell the truth, I have been very busy
in the different churches where I have been in the coun-
try, and I have come to New York to have a little quiet
time to myself." "Oh," said the rector, "I see; you have
come to the wrong church ; you want to go to the Church
of the Heavenly Rest, around the corner !" *

As we examine almost any parish with which we
are familiar, whether in city or in rural field, how
few laymen we find who are availing themselves of
the priceless privileges and discharging the high
obligations of the Church those of corporate
worship, of Holy Communion, of fellowship with
the household of God, of declaring faithful wit-
ness to those who are without, and of furthering
great unselfish causes affecting the life of the com-
munity, the nation, and the world.

3. Laymen are needed on every hand and in
all relationships of everyday life to proclaim the

* Remarks by Dr. Storrs, in The Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Installation of Richard Salter Storrs, D.D., LL.D., L.H.D., as
Pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, New Torkf
November 19, l8g6 (Brooklyn: Published by the Trustees, 1897),
p. 218.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 45

full Gospel individual and social and to demon-
strate its power. Society to-day is so complex, life
is so fully organized (in fact overorganized) , and
human activity is so highly specialized or depart-
mentalized, that the only way adequately to per-
meate and influence it all for Christ and the
Church is through laymen who, within the sphere
of their daily calling and relationships, actually
show forth Christ. Have we a religion which can
locate and remove causes of industrial and racial
misunderstanding, ill will, and strife, as well as
deal with their serious results ? What message has
the Christian Church for the hungry and embit-
tered unemployed ? What program have we who
are members for doing away with darkened,
overcrowded, unhealthful tenements? Have we
dynamic truth from God which should stir con-
science to action because of injustices, cruelties,
and abominations which are still permitted within
the range of the influence of the Christian Church ?
The clergy may answer these penetrating ques-
tions aright, but they alone cannot give the an-
swers full effect. If the Christian religion is to
contribute anything adequate to the solution of
these and other emergent problems and issues, a
more heroic and dynamic type of religion than now
generally prevails must be brought to bear by lay-
men, and this at the points where their lives and
influence impinge upon particular problems and
issues.

4. The profession, practice, and propagation of
the Christian faith by laymen affords one of the
most telling apologetics. This is true in every

46 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

community in the Western world. The clergyman
appears before the public as a pleader. This is
proper and necessary. He asserts and seeks to
demonstrate the adequacy of the Christian Gospel
to meet the deepest needs of the human heart and
of all circumstances of life. If the lay members
of his congregation by life, by words, or by silence
contradict or belie his claims, the force of his
message and influence is diminished or broken. On
the other hand, if their practice and testimony bear
witness to the truth of his word, his hands are
enormously strengthened. Right now, if ever, in
view of widespread skepticism and uncertainty,
such living, present, and compelling witnesses are
greatly needed. J. Pierpont Morgan was a splen-
did example in his day. His rector, Dr. Rainsford,
tells of the way in which Mr. Morgan, his senior
warden, discharged his lay responsibilities during
the rector's enforced absence for a period of six
months on account of illness :

In that remarkable band that held things together one
man stood forth. Round him while its membership
scarcely knew it St. George's gathered, and when with
absolute regularity, Sunday morning by Sunday morning,
half an hour or more before the service began, Mr. Mor-
gan stood at the church door welcoming those he knew
and did not know, church members and strangers alike
felt that St. George's without a rector was still a going
concern. I am not exaggerating the stimulating influence
of my senior warden. He had extraordinary powers of
inspiration and encouragement about him when he chose
to exercise them. 8

8 William Stephen Rainsford, The Story of a Varied Life;
an Autobiography (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page
& Co., 1922), p. 277.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 47

This point takes on added meaning and force in
non-Christian lands. The non-Christian religions
have laymen. They also have priests. These are
often called "holy men." All too frequently this
designation is a misnomer. In view of such un-
fortunate associations the Christian missionary
often begins and carries on his work under a heavy
handicap. The non-Christian men say to them-
selves, Here comes another holy man, another pro-
fessional; that is, another man paid to propagate
his faith. They are thus prejudiced and braced
against him and his message. But when they ob-
serve among those who come from other lands
the Christian merchant, banker, engineer, diplo-
mat, or traveler, and take note that he first and
foremost by his life and example in business and
social relations and practices, and then by the in-
terest he manifests in the work of the regular
missionaries and the indigenous church members
and the support he affords them, and, above all,
in his habitual friendly conversation, confirms and
commends the Christian Gospel, it is not strange
that they are profoundly impressed. Without
doubt this, next to the example of true Christian
unity, is the most conquering of all apologetics.

In this connection it is impressive to note that
the only other great missionary religion, that is,
Mohammedanism, owes its rapid spread in mod-
ern times to the fact that virtually every Moslem
is a missionary. This is set forth clearly in the
paper of the late Canon Gairdner of Cairo pre-
sented at the Jerusalem missionary; conference in
1928:

48 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

It is a particular and well-founded boast with Moham-
medans, that broadly speaking, Islam has propagated itself
naturally and without the aid of missionary societies and
apparatus; that Islam adds cubits to its stature without
taking anxious thought. Their boast is that Islam is, in
and by itself, a vast missionary society, and the sponta-
neity of Islamic expansion seems to them a sign of power,
symbolic of a divine dynamo.

In truth, nearly every Muslim is a sort of missionary
or emissary of Islam. The trader, or soldier, or official,
when he enters non-Mohammedan territory does not
"wait for an ordained man" to come along: he sees to it
that some sort of praying-place is fixed upon, and there
he gives to the surrounding people the. witness of his
picturesque devotions. He does not mentally and actually
leave the business of that witness to some groaning mis-
sionary society with a perpetual annual deficit, several
thousand miles away. The Muslim layman simply starts
witnessing himself, and his witness (such as it is) is
short and clear. And there is something about his atti-
tude and the tone of his witness which does succeed in
conveying to that people that they are welcome to accept
Islam, welcome to join him at that praying-place, to learn
the picturesque drill of his devotions, and to repeat with
him the creed of witness; and that if they are so dis-
posed he will teach them something, however mechanical
and formal, or see that they get taught. In short, there is
something about his general attitude which suggests that
although on principle he is unfraternal towards them
(and occasionally hatefully and inhumanly so) as long
as they remain outside, he will be fraternal as soon as
they decide to step within. There is something about the
attitude of every Muslim man, woman, and child which
says "Welcome." This is the fundamental attitude we
need to get back into the Church of Christ.

It is a painful process to contrast this with what actu-
ally obtains too often in our case, partly in consequence of
the general Western attitude of aloofness which we more
than fully carry with our religion, partly because of pro-

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 49

found color-caste prejudice, and partly because of sheer
misapprehension of our own religion/

5. To arrest the attention, enlist the interest,
and command the cooperation of men of large
affairs, influence, and possibilities the collaboration
of the strongest laymen is essential. These men,
the leaders in the community, or in the various
callings, are difficult to reach and enlist, largely
because they are so fully occupied or absorbed
with what they have in hand. This circumstance
goes far to explain why they are men of large
affairs. They do not permit themselves to be
broken in upon or allow their time to be frittered
away in details. They thus become isolated and
inaccessible. Generally speaking, the only men
who can get to them and command their attention
are men who are in a position to meet them on a
basis of equality, or who are in touch with them in
the same occupations, the same clubs, the same
social circles. Such men have common experiences,
are meeting the same temptations, have the same
unanswered questions about matters pertaining to
life and destiny, confer on matters of common
concern, respond to like appeals in short, under-
stand and use the same language, know one an-
other and know that they know one another. The
Christian layman, therefore, who has such con-
tacts has, if his life is what it should be, unique
access and this imposes special responsibility.

4 W. H. T. Gairdner, "Christianity and Islam," in The Chris-
tian Life and Message in Relation to Non-Christian Systems of
Thought and Life. The Jerusalem Meeting of the International
Missionary Council, March 24-April 8, 1928, Vol. I (New York:
International Missionary Council, 1928), Chapter VI, pp. 204!.

50 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

6. Here, also, lies one of the secrets of winning
the youth of our day for the Christian cause. With
encouraging and instructive exceptions here and
there, they have not yet been won. Later, we shall
d$al with factors and influences explaining this
failure. At this point we would emphasize that
the enlistment of the youth is absolutely essential.
They must be won for Christ and the Church be-
cause only so will their own deepest needs be met
and their highest longings and aspirations be real-
ized. As present they are largely without unerring
guiding principles. Moreover, the Church needs
them. Its future well-being and progress depend
on their power of vision, their idealism, their hope-
fulness, their spirit of adventure and conquest,
their creative energy, their unspent years.

What hope is there for this maimed, confused,
overburdened, imperiled world without them as
channels or points of contact through which
Christ can communicate His vitalizing impulses,
particularly in view of the obvious fact that those
now directing the program of Christianity will not
live long enough to effect the extensive, profound,
and permanent changes which are absolutely nec-
essary? No group in the world are so much in-
fluenced by their comrades, those of their own set
and age, as are the youth. What a responsibility
this places on the younger lay element in the
Churches and also on those rare men of the
older generation whose hearts are still young and
who possess the intellectual and spiritual confi-
dence of the youth to win at all costs the splen-
did allegiance of young life surging about us both
within and outside the Churches.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 51

7. The cooperation and leadership of laymen
are essential to the development and maintenance
of a dependable economic base for the program of
the Churches. This base needs widening every-
where. Contacts with local Churches here and
there, visits to nearly all the mission boards of
North America and Europe, and attendance upon
recent home and foreign missionary conferences
have revealed the fact that the financial problems
of the Christian forces are acute. Almost every
denominational and interdenominational agency is
embarrassed for want of funds. This state of
affairs is serious in most countries. It is largely
inexcusable in the United States where in the
hands of Christians there are financial resources
sufficient to meet the requirement of the Churches
at home and abroad. In fact one of the greatest
perils lies in the failure to liberate more largely
the money power of the rich and of those of mod-
erate means.

The number of donors must be greatly multi-
plied from the ranks of laymen. If as large a pro-
portion of their number became regular givers as
is the case among the women members of the
Churches, no worthy Christian cause need languish
or suffer for want of funds. There should also be
an enlargement in the scale of giving among lay-
men who are already giving. What certain indi-
viduals and groups are doing shows how the finan-
cial problems of the Church could be dissolved if
others, who are as favorably circumstanced, were
to do likewise. Larger lay cooperation is also
needed to make possible the notable advance so
imperatively demanded on the part of the Churches

52 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

at a time when possibly more than ever before
their ministry should be expanded.

In order to work out more masterly handling
of the money affairs of the Churches there is need
of the help of laymen capable not only of dealing
skilfully with business affairs but also of compre-
hending the principles on which the fellowship of
the Church is based. The subject of cooperative
finance in connection with various union projects
of the Churches presents new unsolved problems
which call for the best minds among the laity.

One of the most encouraging developments in
the life of the Churches in recent years has been
the growing attention paid to the Christian con-
ception of stewardship. More and more we are
coming to recognize how outstanding this subject
was in Christ's teaching and emphasis. Only as
laymen take this requirement to heart and apply it
religiously to the use of their money power, be it
little or great, as well as to the exercise of their
other powers or talents, will the economic base of
Christianity be sufficiently widened and strength-
ened to meet the ever-enlarging opportunities
before the Christian Church.

We are living in times when there is especially
great need of dominating the money power with
Christian principle and passion. From the nature
of the case this must be done by laymen. The
words of Bushnell spoken to his generation come
with even more appropriateness and force to the
present day, "What we wait for and look hope-
fully to see, is the consecration of the vast money
power of the world to the work and cause and

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 53

Kingdom of Jesus Christ. For that day, when it
comes, is the morning, so to speak, of the new
creation." To this end the need is great of multi-
plying the number of laymen whose principles and
practices with reference to the use of money have
been so well illustrated by D. K. Pearsons, John S.
Kennedy, Chester D. Massey, and Cleveland H.
Dodge, not to mention equally noteworthy names
of laymen now living.

8. The larger collaboration of laymen is needed
to ensure the best administration of the work of
the Church whether local, regional, national, or
international. At times the lack of business meth-
ods and business efficiency in the conduct of the
affairs of the Church is charged to the pastor, but
more often it can be traced to the neglect or super-
ficial and unbusinesslike attention of the laymen.
Their best business experience, judgment, organiz-
ing ability, and enterprise and the habits of work
which have made them successful, together with
their contacts and influence within the sphere of
their calling and relationships, are essential. In
the words of John H. Converse, a leading layman
who exemplified what he preached, speaking more-
over from the commanding viewpoint of president
of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, "When busi-
ness men apply to the work of missions the same
energy and intelligence which govern in their com-
mercial ventures, then the proposition to evangel-
ize the world in their generation will be no longer
a dream."

The present is emphatically no time to confine
to the economic and purely business sphere our

54 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

thought regarding laymen, and their possible con-
tribution to the life, program, and work of the
Church. Laymen of widely differing walks of life
are needed to strengthen the thought bases of the
Church's work and to enrich the content of its
program. Think of the background, experience,
and insight of the teachers, editors, engineers,
architects, doctors, lawyers, farmers, and working-
men of various trades. Representatives of prac-
tically all these groups are to be found in many
parishes ; and they should all be made tributary to
the message and activity of the Church. How im-
poverished is our contribution to the community
in contrast with what it might be were we but to
enlist all our available resources.

Contrary to the popular impression the laymen
of all these groups, and even those of the business
world, are needed not chiefly for the business ad-
ministration of the Church but for furthering all
the policies and plans for the religious culture of
the members and social uplift of the community
and the outreach of the Church's influence in the
world. The laymen of the many vocations bring
to bear on the religious questions a non-profes-
sional point of view, and often quite as deep in-
sight into the problems and issues as do the clergy.
Dr. Conwell, in speaking of the experience of his
own Church in Philadelphia, enforces this point :

What has contributed most as a means used of God to
bring Grace Church up to its efficiency? I answer it was
the inspired, sanctified, common sense of enterprising,
careful business men. The disciplined judgment, the
knowledge of men, the forethought and skill of these

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 55

workers who were educated at the school of practical
business life, helped most. The trustees and working
committees in all our undertakings, whether for Church,
hospital, college, or missions, have been, providentially,
men of thorough business training, who used their experi-
ence and skill for the Church with even greater care and
perseverance than they would have done in their own
affairs. 5

Moreover, right here lies the secret of multi-
plying points of contact with the men of all these
callings who are outside the Churches and of so
presenting the Gospel and program of Christianity
to them as to ensure the largest realization of the
spiritual objectives of the Christian Church.

9. To Christianize the impact of the so-called
Christian civilization of the West upon the so-
called non-Christian world, the exemplification of
the Christian principles and the propagation of the
Christian faith, on the part of the laymen of the
West in their relation to other peoples are indis-
pensable. In recent years the world has found
itself as a unity. It recognizes itself as one body.
No longer can it be a matter of indifference to any
part of this world body what takes place in other
parts. The interdependence of nations and races
has become the major fact in the life of the world
of to-day. Problems and perils which the people
in a given nation have been accustomed to regard
as purely national or racial have suddenly come to
be recognized as of world-wide interest and con-

8 Quoted by Agnes Rush Burr in her Russell H. Convoell,
Founder of the Institutional Church in America: the Work and
the Man (Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1905), pp.
i8zf.

56 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

cern. This fact has a most vital bearing on the
world mission of Christianity. The Christian reli-
gion, as none other, claims concern with all man-
kind and all human relationships. Every Church,
whether in its local or its national aspect, is, there-
fore, concerned in the whole outreach of the civil-
ization of the West to the non-Christian world.
In our own day we have witnessed the marvel-
ous spread of Western industry, commerce, finance,
cultural life, and social intercourse among the
peoples of Asia and Africa. Every part of Asia,
including its very heart, has been penetrated by
Western influence. Nine-tenths of Africa has come
under the sway of European powers. Mandates
covering the Pacific island-world are held by
nations dominated by Western culture. The reflex
influence of the West upon the Eastern and Afri-
can peoples and life has been profound. The dan-
gers of the situation have multiplied and are grave
indeed demoralization, disintegration, racial con-
solidation, friction, and strife. The Christianiza-
tion of these impacts has become a matter of
supreme importance and urgency. What Viscount
Bryce in the following statement so strongly
stresses regarding the exercise of British influence
is not without its vital message to other Christian
lands :

Not only is the white man penetrating everywhere, but
wherever he goes he is a destroying force. Not only are
ancient faiths crumbling, but the moral foundations of
custom on which the backward races lived in former times
have been removed. They have now nothing to live upon
until and unless they are given the Gospel of Christ.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 57

I cannot think of any time in the history of the world
when we have had phenomena of this sort. That is the
reason why we ought to bend our minds to developing
our work in every mission field. It is also the reason why
we should try to see that our influence in every country,
where Britain can exert her influence, is well exerted in
the cause of justice and humanity and to see also that our
people abroad set a better example by their own lives than
in times past. 4

In the facie of a situation like this we cannot
but recognize the hand of Providence in the world-
wide missionary movement. Alarming as the out-
look is, it would be vastly more disconcerting were
it not for the statesmanlike work of the scores of
mission boards of Europe, North America, and
Australasia with their 30,000 missionary represen-
tatives located strategically throughout the non-
Christian world and with apostolic zeal present-
ing and illustrating a Gospel which is literally the
power of God unto the salvation of individual life
and of society.

It is absolutely essential, however, to recognize
clearly that the missionaries alone cannot achieve
the central objective of the Christian religion the
establishment of the rule of Christ in all human
affairs and the flooding of the world with good
will among men.

When men see a body of paid professionals set apart
to do a certain work they inevitably fall into a temptation
to believe that they fulfil their duty if they support that

9 Viscount Biyce, O.M., "The World Situation and the Gos-
pel," in The Laymen's Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. 15; London, May,
1920, pp. 272!.

58 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

paid professional class; they inevitably tend to leave the
direct work to it. ...

It is growing more obvious every day that a profes-
sional class can never reach the great mass of men. The
vast majority can never understand that secret of life
which is the possession of Christian men unless they first
see it in the life of one who lives as they live; and they
can seldom understand it, even when they see it, unless
the man who possesses it is prepared to acknowledge its
true source. 7

It is just at this critical point that there comes
the irresistible challenge to the lay forces of the
Churches of the West. A colossal responsibility
rests upon them. It is non-transferable and urgent.
Let it be reiterated that that responsibility is to
Christianize the impact on the non-Christian world
of the so-called Christian civilization. The word
"so-called" is used advisedly because it must be
admitted with candor and humiliation that, judged
by searching tests, the civilization of the West is
far from Christian. And how can this great objec-
tive be realized? Not in some vague, indefinite,
general sense, but in a tremendously real and,
therefore, definite, tangible, concrete sense. In
other words each of the various contacts of West-
ern life with the peoples of the East and of
Africa must be dominated by the Christian ideal,
principle, and spirit, and this through the medium
of human personalities themselves possessed by
Christ and themselves consciously and by definite
design and sacrificially seeking to bring the Christ-
Poland Allen, "The Real Mission of the N.L. MM," in
The Laymen's Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 21; London, April, 1922,
p. 3<>6.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 59

life to bear on all their relations with other
peoples.

Robert E. Speer strikes at the heart of the
problem in the following terse statement :

"We will get" Christ to the peoples of non-Christian
lands "more efficiently when we Christianize our secular
impact on the non-Christian world. There have been
many noble men go out from Christian lands to non-
Christian lands in the service of the Government, and in
the service of trade; but one of the greatest impediments
to the Christianizing of non-Christian lands has been the
heathen men who have gone out to those lands from
Christian lands and who have misrepresented the char-
acter and faith of the land from which they have gone.
The organized missionary movement is indispensable, but
you never will evangelize the world with professional
missionaries. It never has been done. It cannot be
done. ...

"We are waiting for the day when . . . every man
who goes out in the diplomatic or consular or commercial
responsibility from this land will go as a true representa-
tive of a Christian nation.

"We are waiting for the day when every man who
goes out from this land to build viaducts, or bridges, or
great factories on the other side of the world, will go out
to live a Christian life and to preach the Christian faith.
We ought to send to Asia only men who will live pure
Christian lives and give their influence to build up and
not tear down the walls of the Kingdom of God over all
the world." "

What are some of these contacts which laymen
of the West have with other lands and peoples

8 Robert E. Speer, "The Outreach of the Associations to the
Non-Christian World," in Proceedtnys of the Thirty-sixth In-
ternational Convention of Young Men's Christian Associations
of North America, Washington, November 22-26, 1907 (New
York: Young Men's Christian Association Press), pp. 1431.

60 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

and which it is their Christ-appointed mission to
Christianize? One of the chief is that of com-
merce. With the ever-spreading and constantly
accelerating speed of the means of communication,
the web woven by international commerce has been
more and more closely drawn. The volume of the
world's trade from decade to decade expands at
an almost geometrical rate. This alone multiplies
enormously the number of contacts of Western
merchants, traders, shippers, and promoters with
Eastern and African peoples.

Captain Robert Dollar, of San Francisco, the
head of the Dollar Steamship Company, whose
ships on the Pacific and round-the-world services
bring him and his representatives into touch with
different Oriental peoples, especially the Chinese,
is a good illustration of a business man who has a
sensitive Christian conscience on this vital matter,
and who in his personal life, business practices, and
the exercise of his influence commends the Chris-
tian faith. Wherever he goes he interests himself
in the progress and plans of the Christian move-
ment. No matter how busy he may be, he takes
time to look up missionaries and native Christian
workers and encourage them in their work. His
benefactions known, as well as those unreported,
are numerous and in the aggregate very large.
Among them are school, hospital, and Y.M.C.A.
buildings, also scholarships and other special finan-
cial provision for many worthy students and Chris-
tian workers. In speaking before chambers of
commerce and other secular bodies, both in Asia
and in the West, he rarely misses an opportunity to

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 61

commend the world Christian mission, to nail cur-
rent slanders, and to remove misconceptions con-
cerning the Christian cause. Above all, in his
dealings with the many Asiatics in his employ, or
with whom he has his commercial transactions, he
conscientiously seeks to apply the principles of
Christ.

One thinks also of Sir Robert Laidlaw, of Eng-
land, whose mercantile firm for years has had its
branches in many Oriental cities. He sought so to
conduct the business that it would help and in no
sense hinder the work of the missions and
Churches. During his own sojourn in Calcutta he
was a pillar of strength in the life of the Church.
His comprehending interest and generosity are
remembered with gratitude by Indians and Anglo-
Indians alike.

Representatives of the West engaged in bank-
ing and other activities in the realm of finance in
the port cities of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
constitute another influential group. Some of
them maintain an attitude of complete indifference
to the religious life of the people and even of
direct opposition to what the missionaries are
doing. On the other hand, there are many who
identify themselves publicly with the Christian
movement. A striking example is that of Sir
Charles Addis of the Hong Kong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation, who, while in residence in
Shanghai, rendered a service of inestimable value,
in the face of much opposition and difficulty, in
helping to establish in that great vortex of tempta-
tion the Anglo-American Branch of the Young

62 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Men's Christian Association, which has evolved
into a powerful conserving and upbuilding force
in the lives of thousands of young men from the
West.

Few realize what vast sums of money are in-
vested by Americans and Europeans in foreign
lands. The investments of the United States in
Latin America in the past fifteen years have ex-
panded from about $1,000,000,000 to over $5,-
000,000,000. It is said that Great Britain alone
has over $1,200,000,000 invested in various busi-
ness projects and companies in India. These large
financial operations involve constant contacts with
the peoples and governments of some non-Chris-
tian countries. It is highly important, in connec-
tion with the penetration of Western economic
civilization into countries which have been hitherto
little affected by it, that the investment of capital
be on terms compatible with the welfare and prog-
ress of indigenous peoples and, therefore, in ac-
cordance with really Christian moral and social
standards.

It is believed that the following position taken
by the world missionary conference at Jerusalem
in 1928, if borne in mind by Christian men in the
world of finance and government, will do much to
ensure the maintenance of such standards :

Public loans made for the development of industrially
undeveloped areas are so fraught with the possibility of
international misunderstanding and of dangerous com-
binations between exploiting groups in lending and bor-
rowing countries that such loans should be made only
with the knowledge and approval of the League of Na-
tions and subject to such conditions as it may prescribe.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 63

Where the League of Nations is not recognized, earnest
consideration should be given to the establishment of
other safeguards which may serve the same purpose.

Private investments should in no case carry with them
rights of political control over the country in which the
investment is made, and in no case should the political
power of the government of the investing country be used
to secure the right of making loans and of obtaining con-
cessions and other special privileges for its nationals.

The development of the economic resources of back-
ward countries should as far as possible be entrusted to
undertakings of a public-utility character which have
regard not merely to economic profit but to social con-
siderations, on the government of which the people of the
country concerned should be adequately represented. 9

A great contribution has been rendered in the
contacts afforded in financial relations of Orient
and Occident by such laymen as Professor J. W.
Jenks and Professor E. W. Kemmerer, called in
as financial advisers by non-Christian govern-
ments. Their personal example and the integrity
characterizing all their dealings have done much
to commend their Christian faith. A most con-
spicuous example is that of Sir Robert Hart, 10 for
so many years the head of the Chinese Imperial
Customs. The story of the life and work of this
sterling Irish layman abounds in suggestion and in-
spiration for all men called into the service of
non-Christian governments and peoples. In the
midst of conditions where corrupt practices ob-

The Christian Mission In Relation to Industrial Problems*
The Jerusalem Meeting of the International Missionary Coun-
cil, March 24- April 8, 1928, Vol. V (New York: International
Missionary Council, 1928), p. 145.

10 See Juliet Bredon, Sir Robert Hart, The Romance of a
Great Career. Told by his Niece (New York: E. P. Dutton &
Co., 1909).

64 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

tained he succeeded in building up and maintain-
ing on a nation-wide scale through his long career
a system characterized by honesty and the great-
est efficiency. His example became contagious in
the large personnel under his direction and the
splendid tradition of integrity he established has
been carried on by his successors. There has been
no finer demonstration of the practicability of the
Christianizing of the impact of West upon East.
In the vast sphere of the spread of Western
industry into the areas of the non-Christian world
there is indescribable need of bringing to bear the
vital and transforming influence of Christian prin-
ciples, practices, and example. This in itself calls
for nothing short of an army of Christian laymen
who within their daily calling will be concerned
not only with making a livelihood but with living a
life which is truly Christian in its relationships and
influence. In my observation of the activities of
industrial concerns of the West in the Far East,
the Near East, Africa, and the Pacific islands I
have been impressed with the startling contrasts
presented in the treatment of the native popula-
tion. With some firms it is evidently a central
point of policy to foster the well-being of the
people in every way; others are utterly oblivious
to this obligation. In the one case enduring prog-
ress and good will are in evidence; in the other,
the opposite. In the former case those in positions
of authority have evidently been chosen with ref-
erence to their character, as well as expert ability,
and have been charged with the definite respon-
sibility of inculcating among the younger men from

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 65

the West in their employ the practice of right
principles and conduct. In one place I learned of
an employer who had brought out from home sev-
enteen young men chosen by him after special in-
vestigation as to their Christian character. They
became virtually non-professional missionaries. It
is awful to contemplate the wreckage of the lives
of so many thousands of men, selected in Europe
and North America without special reference to
character and habits and plunged into the midst of
the moral perils of the industrial and commercial
centers of non-Christian lands without adequate
guidance, restraints, and uplifting agencies.

Some men of the army and navy, both at sta-
tions and posts in the Orient and also in briefer
contacts in the ports, are often far from Christian.
There have been sad examples of dissipation and
lawlessness of bands and larger companies of men
of the armies and navies of so-called Christian
powers, and at times serious lapses in the conduct
of officers and in their relations with the people
which have constituted a serious stumblingblock
to the Christian cause. On the other hand, de-
served tribute should be paid to the example set
by many men and their commanding officers. One
recalls the pronouncedly constructive and always
helpful influence for the Christian cause exerted
by Admiral Bristol in the Near East and later in
the Far East. It would be difficult to overstate
the value of the contribution made by General
Pershing through his Christian example and his
unfailing cooperation with Christian undertakings
in Mexico and in the Philippines. The com-

66 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

manders of the British military and naval forces
abound in illustrations of Christian witness-bear-
ing, exalted example, and influential service to the
Churches and their auxiliary agencies.

The diplomatic and consular services of the
West furnish some of the most influential oppor-
tunities through which to communicate Christian
spirit. The services of Sir Mortimer Durand, when
British Ambassador in Persia, and, more recently,
of the late Dwight W. Morrow, when American
Minister in Mexico, are held in grateful memory
by the missionaries. In countless ways Mr. Rans-
ford S. Miller, as Consul-General in Korea, was
able throughout his extended career to strengthen
the hands of the Christian forces. Mr. Francis B.
Sayre, while related to the American Legation in
Bangkok, caught a vision of the possibilities of the
application of the Golden Rule to diplomatic re-
lations, and in seeking to realize his vision was
the one most largely instrumental in bringing about
the abolition of the unequal treaties which West-
ern Christian powers had imposed upon Siam.

This series of instances suggests the almost
limitless possibilities of the civil service of Chris-
tian nations for exhibiting the Christian spirit in
their relation to subject peoples. In this sphere the
British civil service deserves great commendation.
Dr. George Smith in his book Twelve Indian
Statesmen presents us with a striking group of ex-
amples of applied Christianity. The abolition of
many of the gravest evils burdening the Indian
peoples may be traced to the initiative or execu-
tive action of these and other eminent civil serv-

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 67

ants. In the long line of viceroys none has better
exhibited the spirit of Christ and manifested more
sympathetic and comprehending interest in the
Christian enterprise in all its aspects than Lord
Irwin. Similar testimony could be borne to the
unselfish ministry of Governors-General Taft,
Forbes, and Wood in the Philippines. Hundreds
of new men are sent out each year from Great
Britain, the United States, and Holland, not to
mention other Christian countries, to posts in the
civil service. There is need of some plan which
will ensure that more of these posts are held by
men who will themselves exemplify and apply the
Christian principles.

One of the most numerous of all the contacts
is that furnished by the large and ever-growing
volume of Western tourists. It aggregates tens
of thousands every year. Though their contacts
are brief they are by no means superficial. These
travelers have all their time on their hands. Among
them are many with large gifts or abilities. They,
or at least the Christians among them, could wield
a tremendous influence for Christ. It is to be
feared that in far too many instances their light
is hidden and their vast latent powers for good
are not released.

Particular attention should be called to the men
who go abroad to serve as professors and teachers
in the government and other non-Christian or secu-
lar educational institutions ; also to those who are
to enter government and other medical or health
services; and likewise to eminent specialists and
scholars who go abroad under various foundations.

68 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

or other agencies, to give lectures, to engage in
research, or to serve on special commissions. Most
of these will have unique opportunity to do inten-
sive work and thus to exert a profound influence.
Few matters can be more important than to see
that, other things being equal, these tasks are com-
mitted to men of genuine Christian character. In-
calculable harm has been wrought and the world
mission greatly retarded as a result of the entrust-
ing of them to certain individuals of brilliant
abilities but of questionable character or of known
antagonism to Christianity.

One of the most extensive impacts of the West
upon the life of the non-Christian lands, particu-
larly in the port cities, but also increasingly in in-
terior cities large and small, is that of the movies
or cinema. The motion picture industry of the
United States has nearly $2,000,000,000 invested
capital. Its pictures are presented in some 20,000
theaters in the United States and 37,000 abroad. 11
It is estimated that this American industry has
captured from 85 to 90 per cent, of the market of
the world. 12 The objectionable character of very
large numbers of the feature releases sent abroad
has become the subject of much current criticism
by Americans themselves. All too often these pic-
tures foster race prejudice and strife, stimulate
national jealousy and ill will, pander to the sen-

11 See Fred Eastman, "Who Controls the Movies?" in The
Christian Century, Vol. XL VII, No. 6; Chicago, February 5,
1930, p. 173.

.See Fred Eastman, "Ambassadors of 111 Will," in The
Christian Century, Vol. XL VII, No. 5; Chicago, January 29,
1930, p. 146.

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 69

sual, and incite to lawlessness. They also arouse
contempt for American moral standards and
lower the Occident in the eyes of Asiatics. The
leaders of the religious, educational, and other
constructive forces among the foreign peoples them-
selves are constantly making complaint, as Ameri-
can travelers can testify. The governments and
other institutions have lodged protests. In speak-
ing recently to the executive of a committee deal-
ing with social problems of international concern,
an official of the League of Nations asked, "Why
doesn't your bureau address itself to the study of
the commercial cinema in relation to missions?"
The clergy and the press can do much to quicken
conscience on this vital subject, but not until lay-
men in all departments of life which impinge on
other peoples, and especially men of outstanding
influence, grapple with the problem, can it be
solved. >

It should be pointed out that some of the most
important impacts of the West are those made in
the West itself upon people from Asia, Africa, and
Latin America who are guests within our gates.
Among them are an increasing number of ordinary
travelers, who come among us expressly to see,
to learn, and to enjoy themselves. Many others
and their number is also multiplying come on
errands related to commercial, industrial, and
financial concerns. Then there are scholars, in-
vestigators, writers, educators in fact, represen-
tatives of all the learned professions. It is su-
premely important that they all be treated with
courtesy, kindness, and unselfish consideration.

70 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

They should be exposed intimately to the best side
of our civilization our homes, our social better-
ment activities, our educational or cultural insti-
tutions, and our religious life. Friendly relations
should be established. All this constitutes a call
primarily to laymen for active initiative and coop-
eration on a large scale.

Possibly more important than any of these con-
tacts at home or abroad is that with the foreign
students from all parts of the non-Christian world
who in ever-growing numbers are coming to study
at our seats of learning. It is estimated that at
present there are as many as 12,000 of them
among us. A large majority of them come to
spend two years or more. They come with open
minds. They are in their most impressionable
years. A disproportionately large number of them
will ultimately hold positions of leadership in their
native lands. What could be more important or of
farther-reaching significance than to influence
aright their ideals, their guiding principles, their
life habits and purposes? And what have we to
share with them comparable to Christ Himself
and the claims of His world program? Here
again is a tremendous challenge to the latent lay
forces of the nation both young and old.

10. It is essential to the realization of the
objective the largest helpfulness of the service
and cooperation of the missionaries from the West
that there be no untaken forts at their rear. So
far as the American Churches are concerned their
weakest and most strategic front is in the home-

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 71

land. What do the nationals see when they come
among us? They see over 6,000,000 unemployed
and in dire want alongside of granaries and ware-
houses overcrowded with food and manufactured
goods. They cannot but see much ostentatious dis-
play of wealth, luxury, and extravagance. They
are made aware of crime and lawlessness on a
scale not to be found anywhere else. Exhibitions
of race prejudice and discrimination confront them
in nearly all parts of the country. This as well as
other manifestations of divisive tendencies among
industrial groups may well startle them. If they
remain here long enough they learn of the disinte-
gration of much of the family life as revealed by
the fact that there is one divorce to seven mar-
riages. They read such words as these from one
of the most discerning students of our social life
and trends :

We have with us ... the problems of non-function-
ing homes, broken homes, marriage slackers, birth-control,
trial marriage, divorce by mutual consent, and similar
symptoms of the rule of general laxity. . . . Whither are
we bound? 1 *

The following words of Professor Joseph Alex-
ander Leighton, of Ohio State University, must
come with solemnizing force :

When we speak of paganism recrudescent to-day, we
have in mind the wanton luxury, the gross sensualism, the
cult of unnatural vices, the decay of family life and of

" George Walter Fiske, The Changing Family (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1928), p. xiii.

72 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the old republican simplicity and integrity, the judicial
and political corruption which Seneca bemoans, Juvenal
satirizes, and St. Paul lashes. . . .

There are, I think, in our social life many symptoms of
moral confusion and disintegration that present striking,
and even startling analogies to the decadent paganism of
the Roman world under the Caesars. We, too, have our
commercial Caesarism that saps the foundations of the
republic. Our Caesars have ridden roughshod over the
moral rights of the weaker, or have, by insidious methods
of bribery, poisoned the founts of law and equity in our
legislative halls. If they have not made spectacles to ap-
pease the public, they have tried to do so by generous
subscriptions to Church and college. They have taken
toll from the worst criminals, and have debauched the
administration of justice. The family life is notoriously
endangered among us, and in ever increasing measure, by
the rapidly growing frequency of divorce, which, in turn,
is but a symptom of deeper-lying ethical laxity and con-
fusion. The unblushing effrontery and sensual suggestive-
ness of the lascivious stage corrupt our youth. The ap-
palling increase of suicide, even among the young, indi-
cates a weakening sense of personal responsibility, a break-
ing down of faith in human dignity, with a corresponding
heightening of the tension of living. When one reads
some of the verdicts of juries on crimes of passion, one
wonders whether the belief in the value of law is dying
out entirely, and whether men are not becoming blind to
the fateful consequences of ignoring the moral founda-
tions of State and society. And, when one considers the
frequent and grave outbursts of lawlessness, the rapid
growth of hoodlumism and crimes of violence, one is
tempted to think that the belief in the majesty of law and
the necessity of order in the community life are passing
through an eclipse. We seem to be in the midst of a new
individualism of the sophistical brand, for which the indi-
vidual, with his momentary whims, passions, and impulses,
is the sole measure of moral values; which means, of
course, that objective moral values are no longer recog-

NEED OF AUGMENTING LAY FORCES 73

nized. In many directions, then, our social life shows
lack of ethical stability. It is an age of seeming confusion
and disintegration, in which many souls are drifting rud-
derless on a chartless sea. 14

Sojourners among us from foreign lands must
also share our alarm as they mingle with youth
who are so largely coming forward without wise,
guiding principles ; and also learn that less than
one-half of the young children and adolescents are
enrolled in any form of religious education. They
cannot but see that the most conspicuous thing
about us is crass materialism or secularism. They
with us come to feel the chill of behaviorist psy-
chology and of a humanistic philosophy which
denies the superhuman. Without doubt there is
need of making moral ideals and issues more regu-
lative and controlling in our municipal, national,
and international politics. Ours is a democracy.
To make government more Christian we must
make citizens more truly Christian.

Let it be reiterated, our mission problem is a
world problem and must be fought on more than
one front. The different fronts cannot be dealt
with alternately. Their interests and perils are
common and inter-related. Only a Gospel which is
able to deal simultaneously with the unprecedented
situation confronting the Churches in Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and the Pacific islands and with
these overwhelming and emergent problems within
our own gates will suffice. A vastly greater lay
force must, therefore, be liberated, mobilized, and

14 Joseph Alexander Leighton, Religion and the Mind of
To-day (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1924), pp. 388.

74 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

brought to bear by the Churches through the mul-
tiform contacts of the complex, modern world
life, and this in the years right before us, if the
overwhelming challenge on both fronts is to be
met.

Ill

INFLUENCES WHICH MILITATE AGAINST

THE LARGER PARTICIPATION OF LAY-

MEN IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF

JHE CHURCH

i. THE prevailing secularism of our time and of
our country has generated an atmosphere of unbe-
lief in the superhuman and this, both consciously
and unconsciously, has served to hold back lay-
men from identifying themselves more largely with
the Church and its program. The unprecedented
materialistic development of nations in the West,
and in increasing measure in the East, has mark-
edly militated against interest in spiritual things
and progress in the apprehension of spiritual truth.
While in some respects this development has in-
creased greatly the conveniences and comforts of
life, it may be seriously questioned whether it has
augmented the moral and spiritual energies of
mankind. Certainly it has not contributed greatly
to the solution of the acute problems of human
relations. The time has come to ask how far the
Church can accept the guidance of those whose
standards are predominantly material and com-
mercial without weakening or losing the spiritual

75

76 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

life which manifests itself in ethical passion for the
service of humanity.

In the words of Ramsay MacDonald:

There is a tendency at work to-day crushing out the
spiritual life of the people. At one end of Society it is
luxury, at the other it is harassing poverty or the fear of
poverty the fear often being more devastating than the
actuality. Most men lose their spiritual appetites when
life crushes too heavily upon them. . . .

In the world of the spirit men must have leisure and
peace, plenty of work but not dulling toil ; they must have
enough spontaneity and freshness of mind left after earn-
ing their daily bread to lead them into the ways of the
intellect, into those dream cities where, alone, the im-
prisoned soul finds liberty and happiness. But one only
needs to go into our great factory and industrial towns
to-day ... to understand something of the canker that
is eating the heart of the people. How often we say it,
and how little we understand it: "This age is handed
over to materialism."

These social forces make not only for the emptying of
Churches, but for the deadening of that hunger and thirst
after righteousness which compel men to care for the
work of the Churches. They return men to that state of
dulled sense which makes them brutish. Sunday becomes
a day of lounging about not even a day of secular rest
and recreation, but a "fine day for loafing." *

To a far greater extent than is generally real-
ized the attitude of religious leaders and workers
has been adversely affected by the current writings
of the naturalistic school of philosophy and the
behaviorist school of psychology.

1 J. Ramsay MacDonald in Non-Church-Going: Reasons and
Remedies, edited by W. Forbes Gray (New York: Fleming H.
Revell Co., 1911), Chapter II, pp. 648.

OPPOSING FACTORS 77

Teach life as merely a mechanism without a soul, and
you destroy its spiritual meaning and high values. If all
is blind mechanism, what becomes of moral responsibility
and the sense of sin? If conduct is reduced to automatic
response to stimuli, then bad character is nobody's fault.
. . . Thus they [the youth] conclude that what used to
be sin in the old-fashioned days, is merely error, misfor-
tune, or "unsocial conduct." So they do not worry much
about it. Such moral fatalism is deadly to conscience,
ideals, and character, especially when it is usually fol-
lowed by the fading away of the personal God. Group
standards displace conscience, and ideals are laughed out
of court as troublesome dreams. 2

Another penetrating writer expresses the same
inevitable outcome:

Certain movements in modern philosophy and the
psychology of behaviorism, if accepted at full value, would
leave man with absolutely nothing which could not be
ascribed directly to reflexes activated by his material
environment no consciousness, no conscience, no imagery,
no will, no faith, no soul. 8

The wide currency of such views, with as yet no
adequate concerted effort to meet them, naturally
tends to foster among men, both in and outside
the Churches, a sense of doubt and uncertainty,
and an attitude characterized by indifference and
by neglect of the Church and the program of
Christ.

2. The lack of a continuing, genuine personal
experience of Christ of His ability to emanci-

8 George Walter Fiske, The Changing Family (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1928), pp. 149!.

8 Heber Doust Curtis, "Religion from the Standpoint of
Science," in Religion and the Modern Mind, edited by Charles
C. Cooper (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929), p. 67.

78 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

pate, enlighten, enlarge, enrich, vitalize, and ener-
gize explains why multitudes of laymen are but
nominal members of the Church. "That which I
do not have," said Socrates, "I cannot give." The
churchman to whom the Christian life means little
more than respectability, perfunctory attendance
upon church services, and occasional unsacrificial
financial contributions, is not likely to be an effec-
tive propagandist of the Christian faith, or one
whose life abounds in helpfulness to others.
Wherever men are day by day actually experienc-
ing within their own lives and relationships first-
hand, authentic, indubitable manifestations of the
presence and working of a Power infinitely greater
than human, they clearly must and actually do
break out into witness-bearing and unselfish service.
In communities where the powers of iniquity are
rampant, where lawlessness abounds, where grave
human needs are not being met, and where pro-
found social transformations are not taking place
in short, where the Church is not mightily pre-
vailing, we may be absolutely certain that religion
has been allowed to become lifeless and formal
because Christ has not been made central in the
thinking, experience, conversation, sharing, and
heroic obedience of more of His followers.

3. Life to-day is so congested, the pace is so
fast, the distractions are so many, the cross-cur-
rents and undertow are so strong, and time is
broken up by so many and such conflicting claims,
that many laymen, including often men of noble
character and unselfish desire, have become slaves
of their environment or of circumstances, with the

OPPOSING FACTORS 79

result that the more vital things are neglected or
crowded out, including active lay service. One
need only follow the typical business man, or fac-
tory workman, or suburban professional man, or
high-school student not to mention the man of
large affairs through one day, to see how baf-
flingly difficult it is for him to master his conditions
and to put the proper central drive into meeting
his opportunities and discharging his responsibil-
ities as a Christian and as a church member. We
are living in the midst of tremendous activities, in
fact are ensnared in the very meshes of the count-
less applications of applied science. The fettering
power of the machine age is no myth. Important
also in this connection are the numerous organiza-
tions, societies, movements fraternal, athletic,
political, professional or vocational, literary, reli-
gious which abound in every community, even in
the small town or college. They mean many more
meetings, conferences, committees, more machin-
ery to be kept going. In other words, they involve
so many more contacts with men and so many
more demands made on time and energy. The
more we increase the social machinery the more
necessary it is that we augment the personal forces
to operate and control it. But it seems to become
more difficult for busy men to master their condi-
tions and not be mastered by them. It is at this
point that we observe the marked contrast in the
attitude of Gandhi of India and Kagawa of Japan.
Gandhi throws up his hands in hopelessness and
despair before the modern machine and declares
warfare against it, asserting that it is inimical to

8o LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the best life of India. Kagawa, on the other hand,
says that the machine may be too hard for man
to control but that it is not too hard for man in
the power of Christ to dominate, and that it
should be used by man to serve the unselfish ends
of Christ. The laymen of our day, therefore, are
summoned to turn the handicaps and hindrances
of modern life from stumblingblocks to stepping-
stones in the realm of Christian attainment and
achievement. This is what the liberation of the
lay forces of Christianity really means.

4. Many a discerning Christian leader has
called attention to another cause of one of the
most serious losses in connection with the lay
forces of all the Churches. It is at points where
we can least afford to lose out, namely, between
the Sunday school and the Church, and between
the college or university and the Church. In the
case of the former, the numerical losses are enor-
mous ; in that of the latter, though the numbers in-
volved are not so great, their education or equip-
ment and their potentiality are such as to make
their loss equally deplorable. It is not surprising
that this situation is so prevalent when we find
how little has been done to counteract it. Another
serious leakage occurs through affiliation of so
many men with other social, altruistic, and reli-
gious agencies, such as the fraternal lodges and the
Young Men's Christian Association. This also
need not be the result, for, generally speaking,
there is .nothing inherent in such agencies to
weaken allegiance to the Church, or to dull inter-
est in its work. On the contrary, it will be recalled

OPPOSING FACTORS Si

that one of the cardinal principles of the Young
Men's Christian Association is to serve the
Churches, of which it is the child. Yet unless the
leaders of the Churches and of the Associations
unite and take initiative to devise and then to
utilize measures for the definite object of enlisting
the services of the Association members, or of
helping to integrate more closely the work of the
Associations in the program of the Churches, this
unfortunate hiatus will continue to exist. With
reference to the relationship of the fraternal
orders and the Churches, the whole problem calls
for much more thorough study than it has hith-
erto received. It has a vital bearing on the part
which the laity of to-morrow will play in the
Christian enterprise. The splendid results observ-
able in communities where the matter has been
ably handled afford ground for encouragement that
like satisfactory results may be achieved wherever
wise, persevering efforts to this end are made.

5. In seeking to get at the reasons and factors
which explain why laymen are not found more
largely active in the work of the Church, we must
not overlook the fact that formerly many com-
munity services were performed solely, or largely,
by the Churches which are now conducted under
other auspices. This is true of the care of the sick,
the relief of the needy, the warfare against cer-
tain evils, the promotion of movements for reform
and social uplift, and also not a little of the work
of education and nurture of youth. Now most
communities have become so socialized that other
agencies have been called into being to perform

82 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

these and other social tasks. The number of such
organizations is legion : the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association, the Young Women's Christian
Association, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the
Recreation Association, various societies for pro-
moting temperance and other reforms, hospitals,
night schools, reading rooms, and the list might
still be continued. These interests outside the
Churches absorb the time and attention of many
men who desire to serve. It is probably true that
the volume of voluntary service was never so great
in North America and the British Isles as it is
to-day. Avenues for usefulness apart from the
Church are constantly opening up. In the English-
speaking countries the altruistic forces are cer-
tainly overorganized. Be that as it may, the attrac-
tions and possibilities of these many callings and
agencies, independent of the Christian Church,
coupled with the fact that so many men believe
that in these directions they can do more good,
with possibly fewer restrictions, than in connection
with the Churches, doubtless tend to diminish the
volume of lay service within the Churches. This
need not constitute a reason for solicitude. The
late Dr. Robert A. Woods, one of America's
wisest and ablest social workers and a Christian
of large mold and truly Christlike spirit, thus
sounds an authentic note:

"The people of individual Churches ought to go forth
into the community joining hands with their fellow-Chris-
tians or with any and every human being who will to the
least extent join in the undertaking." . . . The main
insistence of his plea with the Churches was that, as they

OPPOSING FACTORS 83

stirred the spirit, they should likewise direct their mem-
bers toward the field of active Christian service lying
without the walls of the Church. . . . "It is impossible
to escape the fact that the Church, not only in its activi-
ties, but in its teaching and inspiration, is holding itself
to a close and limited range of human life. It is still say-
ing to its adherents, 'Come in out of the world/ rather
than 'Go out into the world.' " *

The Church should welcome every manifesta-
tion of unselfish, Christlike ministry by its mem-
bers and by all others dominated by the spirit of
service, whether or not such efforts are controlled
by and immediately related to the program of the
Church. In reality much of such activity is the
Church at work. She should glory in every such
expression. Her ambition should be to become in-
creasingly a generating force and propagating
agency for such outreach of helpfulness. She
should likewise seek to stimulate, enrich, coordi-
nate, unify, and energize all activities inspired by
the example, teachings, program, and spirit of
Christ.

6. The development of specialization in the
organization and activities of the Churches tends
more and more to throw responsibility for the
planning and conduct of the work into the hands of
trained, paid executives. There is thus a drift
toward professionalism and a contraction in the
volume of voluntary lay service. With the growth
in the size of Churches, and especially in the range
of their programs, it is inevitable and desirable

4 Mrs. Eleanor Woods, Robert A. Woods, Champion of
Democracy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1929), pp. 270 f.

84 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

that there be a certain amount of specialization.
There are marked advantages in employing highly
trained specialists, such as directors of religious
education, directors of social settlements, and spe-
cial secretaries for boys' work. It cannot be dis-
guised, however, that there are perils in connection
with the employment of such workers. In a meas-
ure the same risk inheres in the professional min-
istry or pastorate itself. If the minister, or other
full-time employed Christian worker, regards it as
his chief function to do the work rather than to
multiply the number, improve the quality, and aug-
ment the fruitfulness of the volunteer workers,
then there is the danger that the results will fall
far short of the maximum possibilities of the
Church. This peril must be recognized and met.
The secret of averting or overcoming it lies in
each paid executive's having as one of the chief
standards for measuring the success of his work
the extent to which he increases the number and
efficiency of the volunteer workers.

It should be emphasized that the responsibility
for preventing professionalism does not lie solely
with the pastor and his paid helpers; even more
does it depend upon the laymen themselves. The
main trouble is in the lack of individual consecra-
tion and service on the part of the men in the
Churches. No preventive measure can save a great
religious movement from professionalism except a
larger and more effective service on the part of
the lay element.

7. Too often the Churches to-day give men the
impression of apathy and lack of vitality, evangel-

OPPOSING FACTORS 85

istic passion, and world-conquering power. It must
be admitted that judged by results many a Church
has become static, and does not in any way suggest
a growing or going concern. Is it to be wondered
at that such conditions are not conducive to attract-
ing, calling out, and developing latent lay forces ?
In the year 1930 in connection with the 213,122
Protestant Churches of the United States, manned
by 189,436 Protestant ministers, and having
30,956,510 members, there was a net increase in
membership of 75,756, or an average of one mem-
ber per annum for every 2.8 Churches. Expressed
otherwise, there was in the entire year 1930 an
accession of one member to the Protestant Church
membership of the United States to every 409
Protestant Church members and to approximately
every two and one-half Protestant ministers. 5

Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of God!

Someone may question the accuracy of the sta-
tistics. Those who compiled them, although they
obtained the data from the best available official
sources, concede that here and there slight inaccu-
racies may have crept in, but generous allowance
for all these would make a virtually negligible
change. The sources or authorities consulted and
followed, the methods employed, and the checks
applied have been the same as those used in years
when in respect to the growth of the Churches the
showing has been more favorable. It is not an

5 See "The Census of the Churches," in The Christian Advo-
cate, Vol. CVI, No. 18; New York, April 30, 1931, p. 559.

86 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

adequate explanation of the unfavorable statistical
return to say that it is due to the economic un-
settlement and business depression which have
characterized the year under review. The history
of Christianity, ancient and modern, shows that
some of the greatest advances of the Christian
religion have taken place in periods of acute eco-
nomic pressure and distress. The situation is more
alarming than the figures given signify. A closer
study of the facts in different areas reveals that
some nine-tenths of the accessions were secured by
a surprisingly small number of ministers and mem-
bers. This fact, however, is not without its ray of
hope. If we knew that all the Churches had been
alike keen and persevering and yet their labors had
not been attended with greater results, we might
well have ground for depression; but knowing as
we do, in the light of wide inquiry, that relatively
only a small fraction of the Churches have been
alive to their responsibility and active in meeting
it, we have great faith and hope in the thought of
the results which will follow when a large majority
gird themselves to emulate the evangelistic passion
and power of propaganda of the minority who
have not only recognized opportunity but also
seized it. Nevertheless, we must concede with
humiliation that, in the language of Bishop Gore,
present-day organized Christianity does not appear
as a conquering "brotherhood so startling from
the point of view of ordinary human selfishness
that, even if it excited keen hostility, it must at any
rate arrest attention as a bright light in a dark
place ; it certainly has not appeared as something

OPPOSING FACTORS 87

which could purify society like salt, by its distinc-
tive and emphatic savor." *

8. In many a community the Church does not
have a program calculated to kindle the interest
and call forth the participation and real devotion
of strong men. At times even when the Church is
confronted with truly challenging opportunities
and has an adequate program for meeting the situ-
ation, this program is not presented in a way which
arrests the attention of men and commands their
following. When one studies the nature of many
spoken and printed appeals made to men for their
cooperation one cannot wonder at the meager and
unsatisfactory response. The dimensions of the
program do not appeal to the imagination. It
does not concern itself sufficiently with ministering
to the poor, the unfortunate, the heavily burdened,
and the erring. It rather resembles the program
of a selfish club. It does not reveal an awareness
of the background, antecedents, temptations or
battleground, unanswered questions, or changed
psychology of the men of the community. Even
more applicable to the present day than to the
period concerning which it was written is the fol-
lowing passage :

The present age is an age of transition from outworn
forms of thought, custom, organization, and method in
general to new forms, which may be dimly descried on
the horizon, but cannot be said to have fully arrived yet.
The Church has given little or no indication that she is

* Charles Gore, Christianity Applied to the Life of Men and
of Nations. The Essex Hall Lectures (London: Lindsey Press,

1920)1 P- 35-

88 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

aware of this movement, or is willing to take the risks of
leading it. The consequence is that a large and increasing
number of thoughtful men, in all ranks of life, are hold-
ing aloof from the Christian Churches, because of what
they regard as their obstinate conservatism, their narrow
ecclesiasticism, and their failure to state the truths of the
Christian religion in language intelligible to a generation
which has accepted as a fact the progressive character of
the education of man, and has seen the traditional founda-
tions of the Christian belief shaken by the march of
modern thought. The thoughtful man and the Church
find a great gulf between them, and the former blames
the latter for making little attempt to bridge it over ; and
meanwhile withdraws himself from her society. Again, it
is said that until the Church recognises frankly that her
methods are unsuitable, many more profitable ways of
spending Sunday can be found than public worship af-
fords. Sunday concerts supply better music; Sunday lec-
tures better food for the mind; and books and museums
are more inspiring than sermons. 7

The program does not sufficiently call forth the
heroic strain in men by summoning them to aggres-
sive and uncompromising warfare against the
enemies of mankind. It does not sufficiently enlist
the thought power of able men in discovering the
causes of prevailing evils and in pointing the way
to effective dealing with them. Without doubt a
religion and a Church which does not dare and
adventure and call for great sacrifice will not
attract courageous natures. It is not enough that
the program and its presentation quicken the
imagination and stir the emotional nature. These
must have adequate outlet by being connected with

7 "Men and Church Going," in St. Andrevfs Cross, Vol.
XVII, No. 8; Pittsburgh, May, 1903, pp. 232f.

OPPOSING FACTORS 89

specific tasks. It is dangerous to present great
ideals, principles, and visions without affording
concrete, workable measures and plans. Provide
such measures and plans, and magnitude, difficulty,
and demand for sacrificial devotion will constitute
for strong men but added attractive power.

9. Another factor which in itself would explain
the want of keen interest, downright earnestness,
and whole-hearted response on the part of laymen
in the sublime undertaking of making Jesus Christ
known, trusted, loved, obeyed, and exemplified in
the whole range of individual life and in all life's
relationships, is the inadequate leadership both
clerical and lay of the Christian forces. In reality
the failure is not that of, Christ and His religion
and program but of the leaders. There have been
many studies or symposia on both sides of the
Atlantic within recent years giving reasons why
men are not attending church services in greater
numbers and not engaging more largely in Chris-
tian activity. A thorough evaluation of the evi-
dence leads to the same conclusion inadequate
leadership. The leaders of the Churches in a time
like the present must know the way, must point
the way, must keep in the lead, and must have in
greater or lesser degree the indefinable gift of
ability to stimulate others to follow.

What are Christian leaders for? To concen-
trate attention on open doors and the hand of
Christ beckoning His followers to enter; and to
see that closed doors are opened. To press into
ever remoter regions beyond in the realm of Chris-
tian attainment and conquest. To summon to and

90 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

wage warfare against all that opposes the exten-
sion of Christ's reign. From a worldly point of
view, the task confronting the Christian leader
might be called a summons to the impossible.

If the all-too-latent lay forces are not being
liberated there must be something lacking in the
Christian leadership. May we not find the ex-
planation in three basic lacks? Many so-called
Christian leaders to-day, whether clergymen or
laymen, whether speakers, writers, or organizers,
are lacking in sense of direction. How few seem
to know the way ! Listen to their voices. Study
their diagnosis of prevailing ills of society and of
individuals, and their proposed remedies. Examine
their plans of action for meeting emergent prob-
lems. What confusion of thought ! What conflict-
ing voices! What divided counsels! What re-
sultant uncertainty and indecision! Even in such
a vital and supremely important matter as ideals,
values, standards of conduct, guiding principles
what lack of conviction and agreement!

Equally serious is the lack of sense of mission
among so many men now holding positions of lead-
ership, among Christian preachers, editors, au-
thors, and social workers. Current discussions
reveal much doubt as to whether the Christian
Church really is the Divine Society established by
our Lord Himself. More serious is the question-
ing as to Christ Himself. It is epitomized in the
title of a recent book by a talented and devoted
Christian minister in England, Leader or Lord?
Judged by words and actions, and at times by fail-
ure to act, not a few apparently accept Him only

OPPOSING FACTORS 91

as Leader. Without such an authentic experience
of Christ as enables one to recognize and bow
down to Him as Divine Lord in an absolutely
unique and supreme sense, and to be sure beyond
question of having received a commission from
Christ Himself, no man is qualified to afford the
leadership essential to calling out the latent lay
forces.

Coupled with lack of sense of mission is lack of
sense of power power other than one's own,
power infinitely greater than one's own, power
which qualifies one to face every situation, even
the impossible. There is among Christian leaders
just now more or less of defeatism. By defeat-
ism is meant the attitude that invites, not wel-
comes, defeat. No man welcomes defeat, but it is
possible to maintain such an attitude of passivity,
indecision, pessimism, or doubt toward prevailing
difficult conditions and baffling problems that de-
feat is inevitable. This weakness is due to lack of
meditation on God and His illimitable resources.
The leadership which is dominated by the convic-
tion that the One who is "The Way" communi-
cates an unerring sense of direction, actually and
authoritatively commissions His workers, and also
imparts all necessary superhuman power, is the
leadership essential to afford to the latent forces
of our day a compelling lead.

IV

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING A GREATER

LAY FORCE

IN dealing with the practical, constructive as-
pects of the problem of augmenting the lay forces
of Christianity it is my desire not to treat the
matter theoretically but rather to bring forward
measures and considerations based on personal ex-
perience and observation during a life spent in
more or less close contact with men both in and
outside the various Christian communions and in
efforts to interest, enlist, and unite laymen in carry-
ing out the program of Christ. My belief is that
the various plans about to be proposed are repro-
ducible. Environments, times, personalities, instru-
ments, emphases, and methods may and do change,
and constantly require new adaptation. Ideals,
principles, motives, attitudes, processes, powers,
spirit do not change, although their application to
new conditions and situations call for fresh, thor-
ough, and courageous thought.

i. The secret of having laymen present in the
pews, and also active in promoting Christ's King-
dom within the sphere of their daily vocations and
relationships, lies largely in having men of reality
and of power of growth in the pulpit and also

92

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 93

engaged in faithful pastoral activity. I do not
share the view that the Christian ministry does not
have so important and so necessary a function as
in the past. As much as ever the clergyman is
called upon to lead the whole Church in definite,
aggressive action, and, to this end, to build up, to
train, to inspire, and to direct the lay forces. The
fact that the task is more difficult makes it the
more important.

The solution of the problem of calling out the
latent lay forces is greatly facilitated by what the
minister is, what he says, and what he does. First,
what he is. Year in and year out this is what tells
the story of his growing and abiding influence. I
have made a study of the printed sermons of many
of the most eminent and influential preachers, but
in not a few instances the content of these printed
sermons does not furnish an adequate explanation
of the power the preachers exerted. "The more of
virility and of rugged manhood there is in the
pulpit, the more will the vigorous men of the com-
munity be influenced by its message." 1 A splen-
did example of this was Dr. Joseph Twitchell of
Hartford. He was known as "Fighting Jo" and
during a long life exerted a profound influence, an
influence felt to this day in that community. It
was said of Phillips Brooks that whenever he
crossed Harvard Yard undergraduates were led

a john D. Rockefeller, Jr., "Every Christian Man at Work
for His Fellow Men. How Shall This Be Accomplished?" in
Proceedings of the Thirty-ninth International Convention of
Young Men's Christian Associations of North America, Cleve-
land, Ohio, May 12-16, igi6 (New Yore: Association Press,
1916), p. 300.

94 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

thereby into the ministry. Be that as it may, his
life demonstrated, as have so many others through-
out all generations, that real power, contagious
power, is that of moral and spiritual influence.

In the second place, what the minister says, as
well as what he is, may and does profoundly influ-
ence laymen. Sir Robertson Nicol said of Dr.
Alexander Whyte of Free St. George's, Edin-
burgh, that the "pulpit was his throne." None
can doubt it who ever heard one of the conscience-
shaking sermons of this great Scottish preacher.
The world over, the pulpit still is, or may be
made, the minister's throne. We need only recall
the mighty effect on strong men of the sermons of
Charles Spurgeon, John A. Broadus, Bishop Mat-
thew Simpson, Maltbie Babcock, J. H. Jowett,
George A. Gordon, Dr. Miyagawa, Dr. Kuyper,
Pastor Lahusen, Frank Thomas, Theodore Monod
to realize what a marvelous power the pulpit
exerts in mobilizing and energizing laymen for
lives of service.

What the minister does adds greatly to the
range and outreach of the influence he exerts by a
life of reality and a message of creative power.
The minister who most largely releases the latent
lay forces is the one who regards his parish not
only as a field to be cultivated but even more as
a force to be wielded in spiritual warfare and so-
cial reconstruction. This explains why Dr. Rains-
ford and Dr. Parkhurst had such a dynamic trans-
forming influence in some of the darkest days of
the city of New York. The same has been true of
the work of the present Bishop of London in his

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 95

great diocese. The minister takes initiative and
seeks out laymen for unattempted and for unfin-
ished tasks; he does not wait for them to come
forward and offer their services. It is said our
Lord sought His disciples and they followed Him.
Although happily laymen sometimes volunteer to
help, they more often hesitate to take initiative.
The minister must also plan the campaign and
give the signals. Relatively, ministers are prone
to talk too much and plan too little. Above all
the minister must identify himself with his men on
the battlefield. It is this that makes possible the
note of reality in his pulpit messages and lends the
element of contagion to his life. Phillips Brooks
doubtless had in mind this principle of identifica-
tion of the pastor with the laymen of his church
when he said :

I wish that I could devote every hour of the day to
calling on my people. I know of no happier or more help-
ful work that a pastor can do; and I call as much as I
can. How is it possible for one to preach to his people
if he does not know them, their doubts, sorrows, and
ambitions? 3 v

2. It takes laymen to win laymen. This is on
the principle that like can best reach like. Men
who are thinking and doing the same things can
most thoroughly understand one another. If "the
human mind," as Plotinus says, "tends to become
like unto that which it contemplates," so the minds
of many men contemplating the same thing become
alike, and out of that likeness grows a more per-

9 Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, Memories of a Happy Life
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926), p. 54.

96 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

feet sympathy. The clergy at times find themselves
standing before closed doors just because they are
clergymen. At once and it may be unconsciously
some men lose in the presence of the clergy their
natural and spontaneous freedom. This need not
be the case but unhappily often is. Fortunately in
one's regular parish this handicap can be increas-
ingly overcome. But even under such circum-
stances it is, as a rule, wise to take advantage of
the principle that, other things being equal, like
can most largely reach and influence like.

Lord Kelvin, that great scientist and devout
Christian and churchman, had unique influence
with the greatest scientists of his day and his natu-
ral, unaffected Christian witness told mightily
among his confreres. Agassiz, the great Swiss
biologist, by his simple example of turning in silent
prayer to God at the beginning of his summer
school on Penikese Island, left a timeless impetus
for his faith on the minds of his own specialty and
calling, whose intellectual confidence he so fully
commanded. This has been immortalized by
Whittier:

On the isle of Penikese
Ringed about by sapphire seas,
Fanned by breezes salt and cool
Stood the Master with his school.

Said the Master to the youth :
"We have come in search of truth,
Trying with uncertain key
Door by door of mystery;

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 97

We are reaching, through His laws
To the garment-hem of Cause,
Him, the endless, unbegun,
The Unnamable, the One
Light of all our light the Source,
Life of life, and Force of force.

"By past efforts unavailing,
Doubt and error, loss and failing,
Of our weakness made aware,
On the threshold of our task
Let us light and guidance ask,
Let us pause in silent prayer !"

Then the Master in his place
Bowed his head a little space,
And the leaves by soft airs stirred,
Lapse of wave and cry of biid,
Left the solemn hush unbroken
Of that wordless prayer unspoken,
While its wish, on earth unsaid,
Rose to Heaven interpreted.

Thither Love shall tearful turn,
Friendship pause uncovered there,
And the wisest reverence learn
From the Master's silent prayer.

This recalls the testimony to his religious faith
spontaneously given by Sir Ronald Ross, a witness
which has come with peculiar force to men of
science the world over. He had just made his
epochal discovery, at the end of prolonged tropi-
cal research at Secunderabad, that malaria is trans-
mitted to human beings by the bite of the mosquito

98 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Anopheles. Immediately after achieving what is
in some ways perhaps the greatest medical dis-
covery of modern times in that it made more
habitable a third of the world's area, Sir Ronald
breaks out:

This day relenting God

Hath placed within my hand
A wondrous thing; and God

Be praised. At His command,
Seeking His secret deeds

With tears and toiling breath,
I find thy cunning seeds,

O million-murdering Death.
I know this little thing

A myriad men will save.
O Death, where is thy sting?

Thy victory, O Grave?*

Charles G. Finney, who on his conversion
turned from the legal profession to devote himself
wholly to the work of an evangelist, maintained
throughout his life special interest in men of his
former profession and had peculiar access to them.
In his memoirs he thus comments on a typical
experience :

It was a fact that often greatly interested me, when
laboring in [Rochester], that lawyers would come to my
room, when they were pressed hard, and were on the
point of submission, for conversation and light, on some
point which they did not clearly apprehend; and I ob-
served, again and again, that when these points were
cleared up, they were ready at once to submit. ...

8 Sir Ronald Ross, Memoirs, with a Full Account of the Great
Malaria Problem and Its Solution (London: J. Murray, 1923),
p. 226.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 99

I have always been particularly interested in the salva-
tion of lawyers, and of all men of the legal profession.
To that profession I was myself educated. I understood
pretty well their habits of reading and thinking, and knew
that they were more certainly controlled by argument, by
evidence, and by logical statements, than any other class
of men. I have always found, wherever I have labored,
that when the Gospel was properly presented, they were
the most accessible class of men; and I believe it is true
that, in proportion to their relative number, in any com-
munity, more have been converted, than of any other
class/

It would be difficult to overstate the spiritual
influence of laymen of such genuine Christian char-
acter as Ramsay MacDonald, not only upon labor
leaders but also upon workingmen in their own
and all other lands. What an effective sounding-
board their lives and official station afford for
their Christian testimony and the principles of
Christ, which they are seeking to apply to the most
obstinate social problems of our day.

A few months ago we heard over the radio the
testimony of many of the leading football coaches
of America to the life and .influence of Knute

^___ c ^

Rockne of Notre Dame University. The dominant
note was the Christian influence he exerted in his
intimate relations with coaches and men.

The secret of the marked spread of religious in-
terest among the students of America and of other
lands in recent decades is directly traceable to the
organization of Christian student movements
banding Christian students together to influence

4 Charles G. Finney, Memoirs (New York: Fleming H. Revell
Co., 1876), pp. 368, 365!.

ioo LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

for Christ their fellow students. President Ander-
son of Rochester University was aptly called "the
great American suggester" because he had set so
many college men on a useful and honorable
career. In a communication which he addressed
to the International Convention of the Young
Men's Christian Associations held in Richmond in
1875, and which was one of the factors preparing
the way for the creation of the American student
Christian movement, he thus emphasized the wis-
dom and strategy of organizing Christian students
for the purpose of winning their comrades :

We believe that College students are more likely to
acquire breadth and vigor of moral, intellectual, and
religious character by worshiping with an ordinary
Church and congregation of the denomination to which
they severally belong, than by listening to Academic
preaching however able. Such worship will be in .har-
mony with their early associations and their deepest and
most cherished convictions. The instruction thus received
will be likely to take a steadier and firmer grasp upon
the conscience, than a form of service and style of preach-
ing to which they have never been accustomed. When all
students in our institutions of learning shall worship on
Sunday with the Churches to which they severally belong,
and shall be organized for religious work in College on
the platform of the Young Men's Christian Associations,
it seems to me that religious effort among them will be
attended with less friction, and be more healthy and effec-
tive than with one portion associated in a Church which
is likely from the nature of the case to segregate its mem-
bers from a minority equally earnest, but holding to differ-
ent forms of Christian faith.

In a College Christian Association the students meet
on a common ground. In their labor for the religious cul-
ture of their classmates and associates, the suspicion of

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 101

propagandism is not likely to arise. Those who are in
a condition to need pastoral advice will naturally seek it
from a clergyman, upon whose ministrations they attend
on Sunday. When it is desirable for any who have be-
come interested in religion to join a Church, they will
naturally be received into the Church where they wor-
ship. ...

I look forward with hope to the time when your wide-
spread organization shall be represented in every Protes-
tant institution of learning in our broad land, when Col-
lege students delegated from the East and West, the
North and the South, shall meet together, not as rival
athletes, but as reapers in the great moral harvest waiting
to be brought into the garners of our Lord. Where can a
more promising field be found for your society's labor
than among the thousands of young men in seats of learn-
ing? These will, in a few years, furnish a large part of
the leaders of thought and action, and from their num-
ber you must draw a great part of your most earnest and
efficient fellow workers. Let them be trained in your
methods and processes during their educational course,
and they will be prepared to join the ranks of the young
merchants and artisans to increase the influence and
power of your Associations, and at the same time become
pillars of beauty and strength in the Churches where
they worship and partake of the ordinances of our holy
religion."

3. Christian workers, both lay and clerical,
should put themselves in training for the discov-
ery, enlistment, and development of laymen. In
recent years there has been evolved a fascinating
science of relating the money power, both of the

'A letter from M. B. Anderson in Proceedings of the
Twentieth Annual Convention of the Young Men's Christian
Associations of the United States and British Provinces, held at
Richmond, Fa., May 26-30, 1875 (New York: Executive Com-
mittee, 2875), pp. 76, 78.

LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

rich and of the poor, to Christian and other con-
structive undertakings ; but we are still only in the
beginning of mastering the facts, principles, proc-
esses, and methods involved in the enlistment,
preparation, and utilization of the most potential
and yet relatively latent lay forces of the
Churches. There is no time to be lost. We should
give ourselves with more intensity to the task of
developing what should be tantamount to a science,
embracing such, aspects of the subject as the fol-
lowing: the kinds of lay talent and experience
needed, the most important and hopeful sources
of supply, the most fruitful ways of prospecting
and discovering potential lay workers, ways of
establishing most favorable contacts, means of lib-
erating the hidden powers, the diagnosis and treat-
ment of diseases of the will, provision of outlets
for the expression of one's religious emotions and
convictions, the secret of a sense of mission, the
most effective methods of training, the forfeiture
of leadership.

A study of supreme importance, in fact there is
no other which I would bracket with it in point of
value, is the study of Jesus Christ, our Pattern in
recruiting and training. Three years of special con-
centration upon this theme have convinced me that
there is no limit to the amount of time that may
be profitably devoted to it as a major subject of
one's study. Years ago while walking with Henry
Drummond along Queen Street, Edinburgh, I put
to him this question, "Professor Drummond, will
you kindly mention three subjects to be recom-
mended to Christian workers, the study of which

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 103

will yield most spiritual profit ?" He was silent for
some moments and then replied, "Tell them to
study first the life of Jesus Christ, secondly, the
life of Jesus Christ, and, thirdly, the life of Jesus
Christ." It will be remembered that those whom
Christ trained were largely, if not entirely, lay-
men. In the study of Him three older books will
still be found to be very suggestive The Imita-
tion by Thomas a Kempis, The Training of the
Twelve by Bruce, and Imago Chris ti: The Ex-
ample of Jesus Christ by Stalker.

In Scotland last year I found leaders taking spe-
cial measures for ensuring the better preparation
of elders and other lay office-bearers for their re-
sponsibilities. One of them in writing me subse-
quently said, "We must not fall behind the Adult
Education Movements which are developing on
all sides of us in order to produce an enlightened
democracy. We are far behind. At present the
man-power of the Church is, as a whole, untrained
and unqualified for answering the call to assist
the ministry." In connection with the Church of
England I was impressed with the three or four
months' training courses for their lay body, called
the Church Army, combining with field work, Bible
study, the study of Church History, and other
subjects.

4. In the attempt to rally the lay forces, a spe-
cial effort should be made to secure some of the
outstanding men of the community men of
largest influence and possibilities. This is the most
fruitful policy. It helps more than any other one
thing to attract other men of like standing and

io 4 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

capacity, and greatly facilitates the winning of all
other classes. The men's Bible class movement
affords illustrations of the wisdom of this strategy.
Wherever a man of large and recognized com-
petency is secured to serve as leader it goes a long
distance to ensure the attendance of other men
who count in the community. The same is true
with reference to the leadership of men's forums
and clubs in the Churches. The student Christian
movement in the universities has learned this
lesson. In arranging for my recent visit at Cam-
bridge University in England, those who had the
plans in charge placed on the first day a meeting
with "the blues," that is, a group of a score or
more of the undergraduates leading in sports and,
in a sense, socially. That helped decidedly to
secure the favorable attention and confidence of
the other undergraduates and their attendance
upon subsequent events or meetings.

In this work of commanding the attention and
the service of the lay forces of the country it is
well to make up our minds that no man is too im-
portant, too busy, or too influential to be called
into a responsible relation to the plans and pro-
grams. At one time when the Young Men's Chris-
tian Association wanted to secure a sum of $i,-
080,000 to make possible the erection of some
twenty or thirty buildings at important centers in
different parts of the Orient, I went to President
Taft at his summer home in Beverly and asked
him whether, if we assembled a group of leading
citizens at the New Willard Hotel in Washington,
he would come over and address them, sharing, in

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 105

the light of his observation in the Philippines and
in the port cities of the Far East, his convictions
as to the importance of the Association as a
means of safeguarding and upbuilding young men.
He replied that he would be glad to do so and
added, "But why not have the gathering in the
White House?" I replied that I had not supposed
that such an arrangement would be practicable but
that, if it was, it would be of enormous help to the
cause we all had at heart. He said, "There could
be no better use for the home of the nation," and
authorized us to go ahead and plan for a meeting
in the East Room. His identification of himself
with the undertaking resulted in the attendance
of virtually every one of the prominent laymen
invited. He gave his impressive and most hearty
testimony. Other eminent Christian men in the
public and business affairs of the country followed
his lead. Ultimately the campaign thus inaugu-
rated yielded over $2,000,000 for this object
which had so much to do with the welfare of
youth and the promotion of international good
will.

5. Taking the long view we perceive that one of
the great secrets of increasing the lay forces of
Christianity is to concentrate all powers on reach-
ing the younger men and boys, especially those be-
tween twelve and twenty-one. In the light of over
forty years spent in studying and serving the youth
of all nations I consider this to be incomparably
the most important group to reach for Christ and
the Church. The same evaluation holds true with
reference to realizing the objective of building up

106 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

an adequate lay force. It is the key also to secur-
ing ministers and missionaries. On one occasion
I asked the head of one of the principal seminaries
for training priests of the Roman Catholic Church,
an institution which had furnished hundreds of
men for the priesthood, whether he and his asso-
ciates experienced difficulty in obtaining a sufficient
number of capable men for their high calling. He
said they did not and, when asked to give the
reason, replied, "We settled that at the Council of
Trent hundreds of years ago." He then enlarged
on the matter and explained that long ago they had
concluded that, in the light of vast experience all
over the world, the secret of getting a sufficient
number of candidates for the priesthood lay in
picking out likely boys in comparatively early
years and then exposing them for a long period to
most thorough training processes.

Bishop Lawrence has called attention to a rela-
tively unfamiliar aspect of the life and influence
of Phillips Brooks which shows how central in his
thought was the enlistment of youth :

HSs interest in young men while in college . . . sur-
passed the interest he felt in them after they had entered
upon their course of professional study. So long as there
was the open possibility his interest was at the height, for
his imagination was touched at the prospect. In his con-
versation with young men he was remarkably frank,
drawing out their best as he gave of his best in return.
He would reveal his inmost experience, or relate his his-
tory, placing the accumulated wealth of his inner life at
their disposal. In the reports of conversations with them,
of which there are many, we see almost a different man,

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 107

so fully does he speak of himself, and unbosom his deep-
est, most sacred hopes and aspirations."

Without doubt there are marked advantages for
the great object we have in view in laying hold of
the young. Why? Because of their unspent years,
their abounding vitality, their unspoiled powers,
their susceptibility to impressions. Then they are
in the habit-forming years, the vision-forming
period, the days of great decisions, the time of
determining life's attitudes and tendencies. More-
over youth abounds in the spirit of adventure and
is responsive to great unselfish challenges. A study
of the biographies of laymen such as Sir George
Williams, Quintin Hogg, John Wanamaker, Glad-
stone, and Roosevelt confirms the strategy of ex-
erting a decisive influence upon potential leaders
in their early years. Dr. Rainsford's testimony is
to this point:

I have already said that the chief result of our work
on the East Side here in New York was that we got hold
of the young. I emphasize that, because my experience
leads me to feel strongly that the way to reach a neighbor-
hood is to reach the children. I do not think a man's
ministry in a district begins to tell until the end of ten
years; that is, until the children he has taken hold of as
little fellows begin to reach young manhood and woman-
hood. So, if I were asked how to reach a neighborhood,
I should say, "Get hold of the young the children." T

* Quoted by Alexander .V. G. Allen in his Life and Letters
of Phillips Brooks (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1900),
Vol. II, p. 800.

T W. S. Rainsford, A Preacher's Story of His Work (New
York: The Outlook Co., 1904), p. 141.

io8 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Such reasons as are here given have ever ob-
tained, but they take on added significance in refer-
ence to the youth of to-day because of the startling
depletion of boy life in so many parts of Christen-
dom through the exhaustion occasioned by the
World War. Apart from this reason, it is evident
that the unprecedented demand of the situation
confronting the Christian Church at home and
abroad calls for nothing less than an uprising of
youth the like of which the world has never wit-
nessed. There is also an element of peculiar
urgency about this business of winning the youth.
Some tasks the Church and others concerned about
human progress can take up in a leisurely way;
and certain of them can be spread over more time
than our own generation. Not so, this one. Too
many are planning, acting, and giving pf their
time, energy, and money as though the oncoming
generation were to pass through two or more
periods of adolescence. It is well that present-
day leaders of the cause of Christ recognize vividly
not only the primacy but also the immediacy of
this aspect of our program.

6. In all that is done to enlist laymen the aim
must constantly be to place definite responsibility
on definite men. Here in some respects is the
weakest point in the line. In vain the formulation
of elaborate and challenging programs, and rela-
tively fruitless the most powerful appeals in pul-
pit, guildhall, and conference, and the circulation
of printed matter calling attention to the need
of workers, unless coupled with them are plans
and activities designed to relate individual men

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 109

and groups to specific tasks. As Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., points out in an impressive appeal
on the subject "Every Christian Man at Work for
His Fellow Men," addressed to a great men's
convention :

Many a Christian man to-day is doing nothing for his
fellows, not because he is unwilling to be of service, but
because he is waiting for the particular kind of service to
present itself which he is desirous of performing or feels
specially fitted to render. In carrying on the world's
work, the Lord is not able to select perfect tools that are
exactly fitted for each requirement; He has to use such
human instruments as are available. The man who has
the spirit of service in his heart will be willing to render
the service which needs to be performed, rather than to
wait for the one which he prefers to render. Our prayer
should be for strength commensurate with our tasks,
rather than for tasks commensurate with our strength.
The man who prays that prayer will not be kept waiting
long for the opportunity to serve. 8

To the end that reality and, therefore, definite-
ness may be given to the whole undertaking of
securing the participation of laymen in the work
before the Church, there should be conducted
from year to year a survey of needs and oppor-
tunities to be met, tasks to be performed, and
measures to be employed. The following is a list
of undertakings and agencies which might well
come within the view of a resourceful parish

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., "Every Christian Man at Work
for His Fellow Men. How Shall This Be Accomplished?" in
Proceedings of the Thirty-ninth International Convention of
Young Men's Christian Associations of North America, Cleve-
land, Ohio, May 12-16, 1916 (New York: Association Press,
P- 301.

i io LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Church in a typical medium-sized or large city,
and which would challenge the cooperation of
many laymen of varied gifts and experience :

The conduct of surveys of conditions which
obtain with reference to the social and religious
needs of different areas or groups of the parish.
I recall a survey task of this kind which was as-
signed to a group of young business and profes-
sional men of New York City, the execution of
which interested them so much and called out
their powers so vitally that it resulted in their
becoming lay workers for life, and from this num-
ber have come several of the foremost lay workers
of the city.

Baptismal and confirmation campaigns designed
to reach and draw into relation to the Church
many, especially the young.

Invitation work the utilizing of bands of men
to invite men to church services and to identifica-
tion with the Church and its activities. The secret
of the large achievement of the Brotherhood of
St. Andrew, as has been pointed out, lies in its
concentration on two vital things each member
to pray for the Church and its work and to seek
to bring men into relation with the Church. There
is imperative need of working this plan through-
out the year in every local Church.

Gospel teams the sending of men out in groups
of four or more to outlying towns or villages, or
to other Churches near by or distant in further-
ance of the evangelistic and other objectives of the
Church. This method has furnished and devel-
oped many of the most powerful laymen of the
present and of preceding generations. From the

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING in

days of Christ it has proven itself adapted to all
kinds of fields.

Fostering programs of religious education. This
is an area of great neglect and a work of funda-
mental importance. It alone can utilize the talents
of an indefinite number of men.

Week-day schools of religion.

Daily vacation Bible schools.

Bible classes for men. This type of activity has
furnished an outlet and training ground for many
men who began the work with little preparation
for their task but who have been developed in it
until to-day they rank among the leading laymen.

Bible classes for boys, a work calling for indefi-
nite expansion and of the most highly multiplying
possibilities. It has been the open door leading
hundreds of college graduates into a continuing
relation to the Church and its program.

Sunday evening services in downtown and other
unchurched sections. A conspicuously successful
example through the years has been the Chicago
Sunday Evening Club, which has provided chan-
nels for exercise of the powers of many of the
outstanding men of that city, and has exerted a
nation-wide influence.

Men's open forums on Sunday afternoons or
evenings. These have enabled strong men to in-
terest strong men and have become a great factor
in developing Christian citizens and transforming
communities.

Noonday shop meetings in industrial plants.
These have become a recognized force in Chris-
tianizing industrial life and relations.

The circulation of Christian literature dealing

112 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

with apologetics, spiritual dynamics for daily life,
applications of Christianity to personal and social
problems and issues.

Newspaper evangelism an unworked field in
many places but a demonstrated success and power
in some of the most difficult areas.

Purifying the moving pictures.

Promotion of good order, law enforcement,
civic improvement. Never so much needed as now,
this cause presents supreme challenges and heroic
tests to strong men.

Americanization work. This is much more
needed than is generally realized until surveys
have laid bare actual facts.

Fostering right race relations especially be-
tween Whites and Negroes, between Orientals
and Occidentals. The undertaking should include
striving for a Christian approach to the Jews;
also promoting friendly relations among foreign
students and befriending other foreigners among
us.

Salvaging human life, through juvenile courts,
the probation system, and other means.

Dealing concretely with the unemployment
problem.

Developing right sentiment with reference to
great and emergent issues such as disarmament
and entrance into the World Court.

Furthering the world mission of Christianity
through the organization and conduct of mission-
study circles and discussion clubs, circulation of
notable books and papers, launching of financial
campaigns, and other means.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 113

Promotion of unity and cooperation among the
Churches. One recalls the influence exerted by
William M. Birks and a group of laymen whom
he enlisted, which led to the union of the theo-
logical colleges of the various Protestant bodies
in Montreal.

Strengthening the hands of other Christian or-
ganizations which are concerned with reaching and
serving men and boys, such as the Young Men's
Christian Association, the Laymen's Foreign Mis-
sions Inquiry, the Boy Scouts, the student Chris-
tian movements, and various men's brotherhoods
in the Churches.

Influencing churchmen to recognize and dis-
charge their responsibilities as citizens. The words
of Washington Gladden, spoken years ago, were
never more timely than to-day :

If there is one call of God more distinct, more impera-
tive at this day than all others, it is that which summons
good men to take the places of trust in the municipal
governments of this country. No appeal for soldiers in
the day of the nation's distress was ever more urgent; no
voice from Macedonia, crying for missionary volunteers,
ever deserved to rouse a holier enthusiasm, or to kindle a
more consecrated purpose. To refuse to obey this call ; to
turn away, one to his clients and another to his mines
and another to his merchandise, when such a duty invites,
is a kind of infidelity of which good men ought not be
guilty. I lay it on your consciences, my fellow citizens,
and I believe that the message which I utter is one that
has been given me by Him whose commission I bear, that
you must manfully take up these duties and discharge
them in the fear of God. 9

* Washington Gladden, Things New and Old (Columbus,
Ohio: A. H. Smythe, 1883), p. 269.

ii4 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

While no one Church would include all the fore-
going opportunities in its program for men, it
would not be without great advantages for the
Church to confront the latent lay forces with the
wide range of human need which surrounds them
and which demands their active help. The frank
facing from season to season of such a compre-
hensive list, incomplete though this one admittedly
is, should serve as a stimulus to larger and more
sustained effort and result in a widening and en-
riching of the program of service. No Church or
men's society should count itself as having attained.

If a man's reach doth not exceed his grasp
What's a heaven for?

Having prepared and agreed upon a program
with which to challenge men, the leaders of the
Church should seek to enlist each 'man in some
one or more specific pieces of work. Each man
among the latent forces of the Church is under
obligation to engage in Christian service. With
God's help it must be pressed upon him that he has
a responsibility which is individual, untransfer-
able, and urgent. There is a will of God for
him. In this connection attention should be called
to one of the most useful books ever written, The
Will of God and a Man's Lifework, by Professor
Henry B. Wright, of Yale University. This book
and the simple public talks and personal conversa-
tions of its author have to my knowledge led hun-
dreds of men to become lay workers. Once let a
man become convinced that God has a plan and a
definite work for him, and that no other man can

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 115

perform it, and you introduce into his life a motive
and a motivating power which will enable him to
transcend his handicaps and limitations and will
carry him through all opposition. When we have
committed definite responsibility to a man, we
should trust him with it. We should not only be
willing to take risks but should actually take them.
Men respond to trust. They rise to great heights
when faith is manifested in them. We should
stand behind them and encourage them and in
every way possible strengthen their hands. We
should see that full credit and recognition are
accorded to them.

7. The program must be a program which will
challenge men of ability. Whether we have in
mind the Church in the individual parish, rural or
city, or the Church as a national or international
society, how few programs we can name which are
actually challenging men. How pitiably inadequate
most of them are, and how lacking in appeal to
the strains of strength which lie hidden in all men.
Why should we be timid and shrink from present-
ing to men the grave realities, the stern challenges,
and the inspiring visions of the present world situ-
ation near and far? There is not enough effort
and struggle in the typical church life to-day.

There is much to learn from men who adven-
ture to widen the limits of scientific knowledge.
For example, it is said of Pasteur that, "having
heard that yellow fever had just been brought into
the Gironde, at the Pauillac lazaretto by the vessel
Oonde from Senegal," he "immediately started for
Bordeaux. He hoped to find the microbe in the

n6 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

blood of the sick or the dead, and to succeed in
cultivating it. ... If people spoke to Pasteur
of the danger of infection, 'What does it matter?'
he said. 'Life in the midst of danger is the life,
the real life, the life of sacrifice, of example, of
fruitfulness.' " 10

Eliminate heroism from religion and it becomes
weak and loses its appeal. When it parts with the
attraction of the Cross it no longer reminds men
of Christ. Love breaking out in enthusiasm and
sacrifice for great unselfish causes never fails to
attract, to convince, and to set aflame. It is the
impossible situation and the program this world
calls impossible which makes possible the fresh
and larger conceptions and manifestations of the
Creative God. And this is our deepest need, so
well expressed by Dr. David, the Bishop of
Liverpool :

Have we not arrived at a point when a fresh advance
is due? The immense increase in the sum of human
knowledge of the mechanism of the universe and of its
growth . . . and no less in the possibilities of human
power to control and direct its forces, has created a situa-
tion with which we are unfit to deal without a correspond-
ing enlargement and expansion of our idea of God. We
cannot watch the world of to-day with yesterday's con-
cept of the Spirit that created, inhabits, and maintains it.
We must see Him as great as St. Paul showed Him
"over all, and through all, and in all." "

10 Ren6 Vallery-Radot, The Life of Pasteur (New York:
McCIure, Phillips and Co., 1902), Vol. II, pp. I5of.

11 Rt Rev. A. A. David, "Energy, Human and Divine," in
God in the Modern World: a Symposium, edited by W. Forbes
Gray (New York: . P. Dutton and Co., 1929), pp. 2of.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING A GREATER
LAY FORCE Continued

i. Each minister should on certain pivotal occa-
sions, from year to year, preach sermons in which
his object is to kindle in the hearts of men the
desire to serve. The beginning of a new year, the
period of launching the autumn's work, the Passion
Week, as well as times for entering upon some
significant undertaking calling for reinforcements,
are all suitable for such an appeal. In these ser-
mons, needs and opportunities may be presented
so vividly and with such transparent sincerity and
such spiritual power that through the facts God
may convey His call.

How shall these Christian men in the Churches of
North America, who are wearing the uniform of the
Cross but are simply marking time as soldiers, be brought
back into active service? First of all, there must be
enkindled in their hearts a desire for service. The oppor-
tunity and the privilege of doing for their fellow men
must be presented to them so convincingly, so inspiringly,
that they will be fired with a holy enthusiasm to do their
part, and for this service we must rely largely upon the
ministry of the country. Here is the opportunity for the
delivery of such a strong and convincing message to the

"7

n8 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

men of the Churches that they will be roused from their
apathy and stirred to vigorous action. . . .

The gospel which magnifies the splendor and value of
self-sacrifice, of the performance of duty however difficult
or distasteful, is the only gospel that makes a permanent
and strong appeal to manly men. I call upon the ministers
of this land to rouse to action that vast horde of Christian
men enrolled in the Churches but seldom seen in the
pews, who are only waiting for some service which re-
quires these qualities in order to be brought again into
active relations with the Churches. 1

We can all recall having heard or read such
mighty messages. Horace Bushnell's sermon on
"Every Man's Life a Plan of God" when thought-
fully read and pondered never fails to convey
divine impulses to unselfish deeds. Henry Clay
Trumbull's address on "Individual Work for In-
dividuals," both when originally spoken to stu-
dents from all over the world at Northfield and in
its printed form ever since, has moved hundreds
of men to lives of helpfulness to others in the
deepest things of life. God continues through
Phillips Brooks's sermon on "The Spirit of Man
the Candle of the Lord" to lead men to realize
their inspiring obligation to communicate Christ
to others. Mr. Moody used to shrink from giving
his burning address, "To the Work," which in-
cludes the simple story of how he came to devote
himself to Christian work as a lif ework, but when-

1 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., "Every Christian Man at Work
for His Fellow Men. How Shall This Be Accomplished?" in
Proceedings of the Thirty-ninth^ International Convention of
Tounff Men's Christian Associations of North America, Cleve-
land, Ohio, May 12-16, 1916 (New York: Association Press,
1916), p. 300.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 119

ever he could be prevailed upon to give this mes-
sage it never failed to kindle in others the passion
of evangelism. One ventures to say that few men
have found it possible to read Henry Drummond's
exposition of the Thirteenth Chapter of St. Paul's
First Letter to the Corinthians, first given as a
brief Gospel talk, and continue to live a self-
centered life. Such sermons are costly. They cost
thorough preparation. They come out of sacri-
ficial experience. They are wrought out in God-
consciousness as a result of purity of heart and
much prayer. They are proclaimed with the true
prophet's sense of mission and with the courage
of faith.

2. Laymen who are indifferent and inactive
need to be exposed to real prophets and great
servants of humanity. Men after all are imitative
creatures. We are much more influenced by what
men are than by what they do or say. Deep calleth
to deep. Those to whom God has spoken can best
find their way to the depths of others' lives. "One
loving spirit," says St. Augustine, "sets another
afire." Every day God finds some whose hearts
are right toward Him and through whom, there-
fore, He can show Himself strong and deliver His
word.

What do we not all owe to intimate contact
with such vital personalities? I would acknowl-
edge my own undying indebtedness and gratitude
to some such. There was J. E. K. Studd (Sir
Kynaston Studd, recently Lord Mayor of London)
who, when a famous cricketer of Cambridge Uni-
versity, visited my own university and by his life

120 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

and words of reality was the means of leading me
into a vital and reasonable faith in Christ. Later
at Mt. Hermon, at the first international Christian
student conference ever held, God kindled in me
through Moody the determination to turn from
a self-centered career and devote my life to Chris-
tian service. Among the thousands of missionaries
of the Cross and Resurrection whom I have met it
is difficult to single out individuals, but if I had to
do so I would surely include John G. Paton, Wil-
liam Ashmore, J. Hudson Taylor, Archbishop
Nicolai of the Russian Church Mission in Japan,
Bishop Thoburn, and Andrew Murray, as impress-
ing upon me the glory, the selflessness, and the
Christlikeness of the missionary career. Dr. John
A. Broadus in an address on "Secret Prayer," and
by his own prayers in the pulpit, in the classroom,
and in his own home, brought deeper conviction
into my life as to the reality of prayer and its
implications for the Christian worker. Dr. Graham
Taylor, through prophetic messages by voice and
printed page, enforced by the object lesson of his
heroic and sacrificial ministry, brought to me for
the first time an adequate and convicting presenta-
tion of the full individual and social Gospel.

It would be profitable to study what it is about
such personalities that gives them such contagious
power. Miss Underbill hints one of the secrets, in
a most revealing word. "We notice about these
men [of the Spirit] that this new power by which
they lived was, as Ruysbroeck calls it, 'a spreading
light.' It poured out of them, invading and illumi-
nating other men: so that through them, whole

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 121

groups or societies were reborn, if only for a time,
as to fresh levels of reality, goodness, and
power." * At the back of such enlightening and
vitalizing power evidently was and must ever be a
consuming desire to exert such unselfish influence
and a willingness and purpose to pay any necessary
price. Thus Ruysbroeck speaks, "I desire to be,
by the grace of God, a life-giving member of Holy
Church." * Christ Himself takes us to still deeper
depth in His high priestly prayer, "For their sakes
I sanctify myself."

In recent years both among those who though
dead yet speak mightily and among those still
living, are men of this strangely prophetic and
dynamic quality in whose presence laymen living
selfish and atrophied lives are brought into touch
with the Fountain Head of vitality and the great
Generating Source of Unselfishness, the Living
Christ Himself, and go forth to do greater works.
There are men living who vividly recall with what
eagerness men of Wall Street crowded old Trinity
Church to listen with breathless attention to the
God-inspired, life-giving messages of Phillips
Brooks and then go back to their work to try to
follow in His steps. Does any one who ever heard
Maltbie Babcock preach in Baltimore, New York,
or elsewhere and had the privilege of observing
and following up impressions, doubt that there
was a personality through whom God found His
opportunity and communicated impulses not of

* Evelyn Underbill, The Life of the Spirit and the Life of
To-day (New York: . P. Dutton and Co., 1922), p. 55.

* Quoted by Evelyn Underbill in her The Mystics of the
Church (London: James Clarke & Co., 1925), p. xi.

122 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

this world? What Old Testament prophet roused
the conscience of more laymen and clergymen and
caused them to bring forth fruit meet for repent-
ance for social sins than did Professor Rauschen-
busch through his flaming sermons and writings
and his Spirit-taught prayers ? In what generation
and in connection with what people has there risen
up such a faithfully courageous and such a win-
ningly effective prophet on the problem of in-
flamed race relations as Aggrey of South Africa?
Wherever he went, whether in the Northern or
Southern States of America, in Canada, in Britain,
in South, West, or Central Africa, and whether
among Anglo-Saxons, Hollanders, Belgians, or
Negroes, he exercised the same power to emanci-
pate from the awful slavery of race prejudice and
bitterness. There are many creative Christian per-
sonalities now living from whose lives and words
are radiating impulses to courageous and unselfish
action: for example, Stanley Jones, of India; the
Archbishop of York; John Mackay, of Latin
America ; Sir Wilfred Grenf ell, of Labrador ; Al-
bert Schweitzer, of Central Africa; Reinhold
Niebuhr, of the United States; and Toyohiko
Kagawa, of Japan. One need only study at
first hand their influence on the laymen of to-
day, no matter where they appear in Orient or
Occident.

3. Vision-imparting, spiritually dynamic confer-
ences of Christians have proved to be generating
and propagating grounds for unselfish lay service
and leadership. How true this has been of many
a gathering of the Student Christian Movement.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 123

Unique among them was the famous Mt. Hermon
Conference of 1886, called by Mr. Moody and
attended by 251 students from nearly 100 uni-
versities and colleges of North America. The con-
ditions were favorable for something truly cre-
ative. There was born the Student Volunteer
Movement, which in time spread throughout the
student centers of Protestant Christendom. As a
result of vital beginnings in the fellowship and
consecration of that company of undergraduates,
nearly 15,000 students have gone forth under the
various mission boards to all parts of the non-
Christian world. Judged by results the entire series
of quadrennial conventions of this movement on
both sides of the Atlantic might be characterized
as creative and dynamic, because we can trace to
them not only the transformation of individual
lives but also the initiation of many an advance in
the Christian world mission.

The conventions of the Laymen's Missionary
Movement in Canada, the United States, Scotland,
and England, whether local, regional, or national,
afforded the conditions in the midst of which lay-
men in large numbers caught a commanding vision
of the Kingdom and reorganized their lives that
they might devote themselves to its extension.
Moreover some of the more formal gatherings of
the various Christian denominations have been
occasions of marvelous manifestations of the
power of the Holy Ghost in quickening social con-
science, in kindling evangelistic fires, in uniting the
Christian forces, and in commissioning men for
heroic, sacrificial apostleship.

124 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Of all Christian gatherings of modern times it
may be questioned whether any, from the point of
view of creative power and world-wide influence,
has equalled the world missionary conferences of
Edinburgh, 1910, and Jerusalem, 1928. There
were few, if any, who passed through the experi-
ences of the momentous days of either of those
gatherings whose capacity for world service was
not enlarged, and in whom influences were not set
in motion which in turn have in the aggregate
liberated greatly the lay forces of both the older
Churches of Europe, America, and Australasia
and the younger Churches of Asia and Africa.

How we impoverish men, and thus hold back
the expansion of the Christian religion, when we
fail to bring them into the heart of such vision-
imparting, transforming, and energizing occasions.
No effort is too great to put forth in order to
afford them such privileges, though care should be
exercised to see that men are sent to the particu-
lar conferences which will be of most help to
them.

There is, however, all the difference in the
world in the relative power and influence of reli-
gious gatherings. It is to be feared that all too
many are held nowadays which seem to yield no
large, permanent results, although often largely
attended and very expensive in time, effort, and
money. On the other hand, some gatherings,
smaller and little heralded though they may have
been at the time, have become historic because of
their marvelous power and fruitage. There is
need of making a more masterly study of the

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 125

underlying causes in a conference or convention
of truly creative power and undying influence.
Great results are not the work of magic but are
the product of the operation of an adequate cause.
Of one thing we may always be sure, that in the
spiritual kingdom the primal source, often hidden,
of the marvelous manifestations, as seen in trans-
formed lives and the unmistakable extension of
the sway of Christ in the relations of men and
nations, lies in sacrifice and in intercession.

4. Particular attention should be called to lay-
men's retreats as a means which more and more
in recent years has been employed, and which is
capable of much wider adoption. The Roman
Catholic Church seems to have recognized the
benefits of this means and to have employed it
more generally than have the Protestants. The
former has what is known as a laymen's retreat
movement. At its last national conference forty
dioceses of twenty-four states were represented.
On that occasion it was reported that there are
twenty retreat houses in eighteen dioceses open
throughout the year, and forty-four houses in
thirty-seven dioceses open during the summer
period. It is said the many retreats fostered by
this movement generate in the laity zeal, gen-
erosity, and apostolic spirit, and that they yield all
sorts of activities fruitful for the Church. It is
particularly emphasized that, in the face of the
prevailing and powerful materialistic trends of
the day, these retreats have helped to hold in
vivid prominence the great supernatural realities.
Without doubt there is much in this experience to

126 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

be learned and emulated by the members of the
Protestant communion.

Among Protestants the Church of England has
in connection with its men's work made larger use
of retreats than has any other body. This com-
munion, as well as the Roman Catholic, has de-
veloped a literature on the subject which will
repay careful reading by others interested in
profiting by such experience and insight. It is re-
assuring to note that certain other denominations
are increasingly availing themselves of this means.
May the day soon come when this practice shall
become common on the part of denominational
and interdenominational groups of laymen of in-
dividual parishes or of clusters of parishes
throughout the Protestant communion.

The retreat idea, with any necessary adapta-
tion as to method and conduct, would seem to be
invaluable in helping to meet the deepest need of
our modern church life, quite as much among the
lay members as among the clergy-; that of the
habits of spiritual realization and spiritual re-
newal, through corporate worship, fellowship,
and meditation. The electrical genius, Charles
Steinmetz, when visiting Roger Babson was asked
to name the line of human endeavor which would
see the greatest development in the next fifty years
and replied, "The greatest development will be
made along spiritual lines. Here is a force which
history shows has been the greatest power in the
development of mankind." Lord Davidson, late
Archbishop of Canterbury, urged that "Christians
must learn to be still and quiet. They must not

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 127

surrender themselves to modern speed and
noise." * And was it not Goethe who said, "No
one can produce anything important unless he iso-
lates himself"? "Three things make the great
Christian," said St. Augustine, "orison, tempta-
tion, meditation." Isaiah reminds us that "they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength," and our Lord assures His followers
that "where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them." The
retreat blends these attitudes, processes, and ex-
periences. In a word, the laymen who go to a
retreat set themselves by design and as a group
before the Living God and under His ever-creative
influence.

5. One of the most intensive methods of lib-
erating the hidden powers of laymen is that of
fostering among them the formation of small
groups of kindred spirits with an unselfish or
service objective. From the nature of the case this
cannot be superimposed: it must spring up spon-
taneously from within. But it can be fostered by
the planting of the idea in the minds of individuals
who can then take initiative in enlisting others to
join with them for the furtherance of some vital
purpose. This seems to have been a means
through which God during the centuries has ac-
complished some of His great designs. Christ had
His group or band. With them He spent unhur-
ried time. He also had His inner circle. He even

4 "The Primate at Ipswich: Christianity and Materialism," in
All in One, Incorporating the "Men's Magazine" No. 108;
London, Church of England Men's Society, July, 1929, p. 42.

128 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

sent out His workers two by two. I once heard
a remarkable sermon by Dr. Robert Ellis Thomp-
son, formerly Professor of Political Economy at
the University of Pennsylvania, on the text Luke
vi:i3-i6, which reads:

And when it was day, He called unto Him His dis-
ciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He
named apostles:

Simon (whom He also named Peter) and Andrew his
brother,

James and John,

Philip and Bartholomew,

Matthew and Thomas,

James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,

And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot,
which also was the traitor.

Professor Thompson called attention to the fact
that St. Luke is the only one of the evangelists
who gives the names of the apostles in pairs. His
sermon, which revealed profound study and in-
sight, was devoted to showing that this pairing of
the apostles was not a merely fortuitous matter
but that it was designed to record an actual ar-
rangement, based on Christ's intimate knowledge
of the personalities involved. May it not be also
that Christ had a deeper meaning than is com-
monly thought in His word, "Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst" ; and that other word, "If two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in heaven"? He knew as all of
us know who have had experience in group study,

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 129

group fellowship, group intercession, group action
of any other kind that there are marked advan-
tages secured through the group which cannot be
secured so well in any other way, for example,
added knowledge or truth, enrichment of experi-
ence, mental stimulus, spiritual quickening, correc-
tive of judgment, truer perspective, sense of com-
panionship, consciousness of added power. In the
midst of such fellowship and vitalizing experi-
ences latent lay forces are liberated. It remains
only to integrate these new energies to the large,
constructive, corporate, continuing tasks of the
Church as a whole and of the community.

It is easy for a group having the noblest of
purposes to generate great power and then to
drift into selfishness and ultimate powerlessness
through lack of such integration with the realities
of the outside world. This need not be the case.
Scattered along the pathway of the centuries we
find historic groups which have given out great im-
pulses. We think of the little bands of reformers
before the Reformation, of those during the Ref-
ormation, of the Holy or Godly Club of the Meth-
odists at Oxford, of the Tractarian Group in a
later day at Oxford, of the Haystack Prayer
Meeting Band at Williams College at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, of the anti-slavery
group round Wilberf orce in England, and of Gar-
rison and his confreres in America, of the famous
Kumamoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo bands of
Christians in Japan. Almost all the most sig-
nificant denominational and interdenominational
Christian movements among laymen and among

130 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the youth in our own day and in all parts of the
world had their origin in small companies, seldom
composed of as many as a score. God is not
through working in this way. The plan is adapt-
able to the smallest and most difficult fields. It is
not dependent upon numbers, or expensive equip-
ment, or large human resources. It has limitless
possibilities. It affords one of the sure keys for
the solution of our problem the liberation of the
latent lay forces of Christianity.

6. In seeking to interest, enlist, and build up
laymen much more use should be made of dynamic
literature. By this is meant books and other writ-
ings which, judged by results, have energizing
and vitalizing power. They are works through
which God unmistakably speaks, at times moving
conscience; again, imparting contagious faith and
courage ; likewise energizing men to count and pay
the cost of maintaining vital union with the Living
God ; or opening up alluring vistas of opportunity
to serve one's generation and to wage relentless
warfare, or again, of opportunity to. communicate
the call to forsake all and follow Him. Many
useful lists of works which have served this pur-
pose have been issued. I venture to call attention
to a number of books which cannot fail to com-
municate such impulses:

Individual Work for Individuals, Henry Clay Trumbull

Lectures on Revivals of Religion, Charles G. Finney

The Candle of the Lord, Phillips Brooks

The Tongue of Fire, William Arthur

To the Work, D. L. Moody

The Passion for Souls, J. H. Jowett

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 131

Christ of the Indian Road, Stanley Jones
Christianity and the Social Crisis

and

Christianizing the Social Order, Walter Rauschenbusch

Jesus Christ and the Social Question, Francis G. Peabody

The Minor Prophets, George Adam Smith

The Clash of World Forces, Basil Mathews

The Heart of John Wesley's Journal

Journal of John Wool-man

Life of Livingstone, W. G. Blaikie

The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury,

K. G., Edwin Hodder
Memoirs of the Rev. Charles G. Finney
Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Marcus Dods
The Life of Henry Drummond, George Adam Smith
Spiritual Energies in Daily Life, Rufus Jones
The Still Hour, Austin Phelps
The Ministry of Intercession, Andrew Murray
Lord, Teach Us to Pray, Alexander Whyte
On the Edge of the Primeval Forest

and
The Forest Hospital at Lambarene, Albert Schweitzer

7. The most universally practicable and fruitful
method to be employed in our efforts to augment
the lay forces is that of personal dealing; or, as
Henry Clay Trumbull expressed it, individual
work for individuals. This method is applicable
whether employed by laymen themselves or by
clergymen, whether one is dealing with the young
or the old, whether seeking to win the educated or
the illiterate. The two main objectives are to lead
men into reasonable and vital faith in Christ ; and
to enlist men in widening the limits of Christ's
Kingdom. This ministry of sharing with others

132 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

the deepest things of life even the knowledge of
Christ Himself constitutes the highest office of
friendship. It is the work to-day most needed, the
most highly multiplying, the most enduring, the
most apostolic, the most truly Christlike and,
therefore, incomparably the most important.

The most usual method for achieving this vital
objective is that of face-to-face conversation. What
should be more natural than to weave in, without
a trace of formality or professionalism, one's ex-
perience of Christ and the progress and claims of
His program ? A strikingly effective Christian wit-
ness has called attention to the possibilities of the
smoking room of a Pullman car, where the talk
naturally begins with politics and drifts thence
toward sociology and thence to its "first cousin,"
religion. The Reverend Leighton Parks, after
spending several weeks with Phillips Brooks at the
rectory in 1888, related that, "astonished at the
frequency with which the door bell rang, from an
early hour in the morning, he determined to keep
a record, and found that it averaged once for every
five minutes. But Mr. Brooks steadfastly declined
to seclude himself, or appoint hours when he would
be at home to callers. They wanted to see him, he
would answer, and it might not be possible or con-
venient for them to come at the hours which he
might fix. Any one who went to call upon him at
this time would be apt to find such a situation as
this, some one waiting for him in the reception
room, another in the dining room, while he was
closeted with a third in the study." 6

Alexander V. G. Allen, Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks
(New York: . P. Dutton and Co., 1900), Vol. II, p. 673.

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 133

With Trumbull it was the custom, whenever it
was appropriate for him to lead the conversation,
to direct it into channels leading up to Christ and
His concerns. Another means, largely unused in
these days but still very desirable, is that of cor-
respondence. Maltbie Babcock had the commend-
able practice of devoting much time each week to
writing brief yet intimate letters to absent mem-
bers of his congregation, or those in special need,
also to others who had come under the influence of
his sermons. This proved to be one of his most
fruitful activities. Still another means of personal
dealing is the wise placing, either as gifts or as
loans, of books or articles calculated to come with
special helpfulness and timeliness to certain per-
sons. While I find in experience that intimate, un-
hurried conversation is in most instances the most
effective of these three methods, I have come to
attach increasing importance to following the
private spoken word or public address with per-
sonal letters and a generous use of the works of
the ablest and most helpful writers.

In this connection let me pay a grateful tribute
to the pastoral work of ministers. My years of
work with men the world over have convinced me
that this is the most rewarding activity of the
the minister in rural or in city fields, also in travel-
ing charges. It underlies the largest efficiency and
fruitfulness of all the other methods he employs.
Reference has been made to the great influence
exerted on my own religious life by an English lay-
man at a time when I stood at a critical fork in
the road. I would also acknowledge my undying
.debt to certain ministers to J. W. Dean, the

134 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Quaker evangelist, when I was a boy in the early
teens; to the Reverend Horace E. Warner who,
when I was a schoolboy in a village, guided my
reading to the higher levels and influenced me to
go on to college ; to Professor Moses Coit Tyler,
the eminent authority on American history and
also an Episcopal clergyman, who profoundly influ-
enced my whole outlook on life and its meaning.
One of the greatest sermons I ever heard,
judged by its effect upon me through the years,
was delivered on the prairies of Iowa by an un-
known minister, who chose as his text, "They that
be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma-
ment: and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars for ever and ever." I repeat, I do not
know the name of the preacher or his present
whereabouts, but a thousand times if once, as I
have looked into the starry heavens, the law of
association has brought back with compelling force
the first impression, and I have girded myself
afresh to the Christ-appointed privilege of seek-
ing to direct others to His Cross and into His
vineyard. Of all the men of my acquaintance
actively employed in personal work the four wisest
in leading strong men into vital union with Christ
and into serving Him as laymen were the science
professor, Henry Drummond, of Scotland; the
editor and one-time army chaplain, Henry Clay
Trumbull; the New York business man, Henry
Webster ; and the Yale Greek professor, Henry B.
Wright. All but one of them were laymen. All
four of them exemplified to a wonderful degree
the two ideas emphasized by the prophet in the

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 135

text I heard expounded by the unknown preacher
win and wise. They marvelously blended the
ministries of heart and mind.

8. Revivals of religion, or spiritual awaken-
ings, constitute one of the mightiest means of ex-
panding and quickening the lay forces of the
Churches. In fact this is one of the governing
objectives, one might say the very genius of a
genuine revival. What does the word "revival"
mean, if it does not mean the awakening and re-
vitalizing of those who are apathetic, indifferent,
uninterested, self -centered, inactive? A revival,
therefore, should not be regarded as an end in
itself, but as a great God-appointed means for the
realization of this unselfish objective. One hears
criticisms about revivals or spiritual awakenings,
and doubt expressed as to the desirability of fos-
tering them. At times these criticisms and doubts
are well founded. I have, however, seldom en-
countered objections in the pathway of spiritual
awakenings in which the leaders avoided the*peril
of regarding and treating the revival as an end in
itself. I am not so much concerned with what takes
place during a revival as with what precedes and
follows it. Granted the right processes of prepara-
tion and the right work of conservation of results,
a revival is unquestionably one of the most potent
means of augmenting the lay forces and also all
other forces of the Church.

A great moment comes at the end (the word
"end" is a misnomer) of the revival. That is the
time of times for the Church and its program. The
great thing then is to press the advantage which a

136 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

genuine awakening and quickening have afforded.
Almost anything is possible then. Madame Guyon
has spoken of creative hours with God. That is
surely such an hour.

There is no more suggestive, inspiring, and
profitable study than that of the great revivals of
the last two centuries. This study should be
supplemented by an examination of the more re-
cent awakenings and evangelistic efforts which
have been characterized by the use of quite fresh
means, methods, and emphases. This is particu-
larly true of the meetings of Henry Drummond
and later of John Kelman in Edinburgh, the
Welsh Revival led by Roberts, the nation-wide stu-
dent evangelistic campaigns in the Far East, es-
pecially in 1912-13, the Taikyo Dendo in Japan a
few years ago, the two campaigns of individual
and social evangelism in Des Moines, Iowa, the
revival on the island of Nias in the Dutch East
Indies, the Round Table experiences of Stanley
Jones in India, the visit of the Archbishop of York
at Oxford in the spring of 1931, and the current
apologetic and evangelistic activities of John
Mackay in Latin America and of Dr. Kagawa in
Japan.

These recent movements of the Spirit of God,
as well as those of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, have yielded notable accessions to the
lay forces of the Churches. Moreover, the thor-
ough and sympathetic consideration of them re-
veals that, while methods, and statement of mes-
sage, and placing of emphasis may change from
generation to generation, and perchance even

THE SECRET OF LIBERATING 137

oftener, and while they may vary in the same
period in different countries, there are certain
principles, certain personal attitudes, and certain
dynamic facts and vital factors which are universal
and eternal. It is precisely these which I have
sought to emphasize in these lectures and which
we in these days must hold in central prominence
if we would witness the great expansion and tri-
umphant action of the lay forces of the Churches.

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150 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

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REFERENCE BOOKS AND SOURCE
MATERIALS

I. Periodicals
All In One, Incorporating the Men's Magazine. London :

Church of England Men's Society.
The Laymen's Bulletin. Organ of the National Laymen's

Missionary Movement. London: 1915 to date.
Men and Missions. Organ of the Laymen's Missionary

Movement. New York: 1909-1917.

156 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

St. Andrew's Cross. Organ of the Brotherhood of St.
Andrew. Philadelphia: 1886 to date.

The Sphere. Geneva: World's Committee of Young
Men's Christian Associations, 19201928.

The World's Youth. Geneva: World's Alliance of Young
Men's Christian Associations, 1925 to date.

Young Men. New York: National Council of Young
Men's Christian Associations, 1931 to date; also Asso-
ciation Men, 1899-1930; Men, 1896-1899; Young
Men's Era, 1890-1896; and The Watchman, 1875-
il

2. Conference Reports and Proceedings
LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT. The Call of God
to Men. Papers and Addresses of the Conference of
the Laymen's Missionary Movement of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. Held at Chattanooga, Tenn.,
April 21-23, i QoS. Nashville: The Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, 1908.

Canada's Missionary Congress. Addresses Delivered
at the Canadian National Missionary Congress. Held
in Toronto, March 31 to April 4, 1909, with Reports
of Committees. Toronto: Laymen's Missionary Move-
ment, 1909.

Men and World Service. Addresses Delivered at
the National Missionary Congress, Washington, D. C.,
April 26-30, 1916. New York: Laymen's Missionary
Movement, 1916.

The Modern Crusade. Addresses and Proceedings
of the First General Convention of the Laymen's Mis-
sionary Movement, Presbyterian Church in the U. S.,
Birmingham, Ala., Feb. 16-18, 1000. Edited by H. C.
Ostrom, Secretary. Athens, Georgia: Presbyterian
Church in the U. S., 1909.

Proceedings of the Men's National Missionary Con-
gress of the United States of America, Chicago, Illinois,
May 3-6, 1 910. New York: Laymen's Missionary
Movement, 1910.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 157

MEN AND RELIGION MOVEMENT. Messages of the Men
and Religion Movement, Complete in Seven Volumes;
including the Revised Reports of the Commissions pre-
sented at the Congress of the Men and Religion For-
ward Movement, April, 1912, together with the Prin-
cipal Addresses Delivered at the Congress. New York:
Association Press, 1912.

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. Reports of
World Conferences of Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations, 1855 to date. Geneva, Switzerland: World's
Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations.

Young Men's Christian Associations of North Amer-
ica. Proceedings of International Conventions^ 1854 to
date. New York Association Press.

3. Books of Reference

The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of
Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline,
and History of the Catholic Church. Edited by Charles
G. Herbermann and others. New York : Robert Apple-
ton Company, 1907-1912. 16 vols.

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by James
Hastings, with the Assistance of John A. Selbie and
Other Scholars. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1908-1927. 13 vols.

The Statesman's Year-Book. Statistical and Historical
Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1931.
Edited by M. Epstein. Sixty-eighth Annual Publica-
tion. Revised after Official Returns. London: Mac-
millan and Company, Ltd., 1931.

Year Book and Official Rosters of the National Council
of Young Men's Christian Associations of Canada and
of the National Council of the Young Men's Christian
Associations of the United States of America, 1931.
New York: Association Press, 1931.

INDEX

Acts of the Apostles, The, 1
Addis, Sir Charles, 61 f.
Agassiz, Louis, 96 f.
Aggrey, J. E. K., 122
Alba, the Duke of, 16
Allen, Alexander V. G., 107,

132

Allen, Roland, 58

Allier, Raoul, 32

"Ambassadors of 111 Will," 68

American Civil War, service
of the Y.M.C.A. in the, 26

Americanization work, 112

Anabaptists, the, 5, 16 f.

Anderson, President M> B.,
zcof.

Andrews, Professor E. Benja-
min, 36

Apostles, the, i f., 128

Apostolic Age, Dissertations
on the, 8

Apostolic age, lessons of the,
iff., 8, it, 17

Armies and navies:
influence of members of, in
non-Christian lands, 65 f.
Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, the, has ren-
dered special service to,
26

Arthur, William, 130

Ashmore, William, 120

Augmenting the lay forces,
the need of, 40 ff.

Augustine, St, 119, 127

Ayer, Francis Wayland, ix ff.

Ayer Lectures, viif., ix

Babcock, Maltbie, 94, 121, 13$
Babson, Roger, 126
Banurji, Kali Charan, 33

Baptists, the, n f.

Bartlet, James Vernon, 3

Bate, H. N., 8, 12

Beaver, Hugh, 32

Beecher, Lyman, 42

Behaviorist school of psychol-
ogy, the, 73, 76 f.

Benedict, Saint, 13

Benedictine Order, the, 13

Bilks, William M., 113

Boehme, Jacob, 17

Bosworth, . I., 32

Blaikie, W. G., 131

Boy Scouts, the, 82, 113

Boys and young men, enlist-
ment of, 105 ff.

Boys' Bible classes, in

Brace, Loring, 38

Bredon, Juliet, 63

Brethren of the Common Life,
the, 15 f.

Bright, John, 39

Bristol, Admiral, 65

Broadus, John A., 94, 120

Brooks, Phillips, 93 f., 95,
106 f., 118, 121, 130, 132

Brotherhood of St. Andrew
the, 1 8 f., 25

Brotherhoods, Protestant lay,

i8ff., 113
objectives of the, 19

Bruce, Alexander Balmain, 103

Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount,

39, 56 f-

Burr, Agnes Rush, 55

Burr, Professor George Lin-
coln, xi

Bushnell, Horace, 52, 118

Cadbury, George, 36
Cairns, David, 32

159

160 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Calvin, 5

Candle of the Lord, The, 130
Carey, William, 6
"Catholic Action," the, 18
Cecil, Lord Robert, 39
"Census of the Churches, The,"

8 *
Chang Po-ling, 33

Changing Family, The, 71, 77
China Medical Board, the, 38
Christ:

group intercession, the sig-
nificance regarding, of the
promise of, 128 f.
heroism, religion devoid of,
no longer reminds men of,
116
lack of personal experience

of, 77 f.

training and recruiting of

workers, the supreme ex-

ample of, given by, 102 f.

Christ of the Indian Road,

Christian Endeavor, the
Young People's Society of,

25
Christian literature, see Lit-

erature
Christian Mission in Relation

to Industrial Problems,

The, 63

"Christianity and Islam," 49
"Christianity and Material-

ism," 127
Christianity and the Social

Crisis, 131
Christianity Applied to the

Life of Men and of Na-

tions, 87
Christianizing the Social Or-

der, 131
Church :
administrative work requires

larger collaboration of

laymen in the affairs of

the, 53 ff.
apathy and lack of vitality

the impression largely

produced by the present-
day, 84 ff.

boys and young men the
most important group to
reach for the, 105 ff.

Christ, lack of personal ex-
perience of, checks much
lay participation in the
program of the, 77 f.

community services formerly
under ecclesiastical con-
trol no longer the function
of the, 81 ff.

distinctive character of the,
41 ff.

economic support demands
larger cooperation and
leadership of the lay ele-
ment of die, 51 ff.

fraternal orders, relations
between, and the, 8z

homeland, the, represents the
weakest and most strategic
front of the American,
70 f.

lay participation, influences
which militate against, in
the life and work of the,
75 ff.

leadership, lack of adequate,
in the, 89 ff.

losses and leakage between
Sunday school, college,
and other social and re-
ligious organizations and
the, 80 f.

membership,

growth of, as a gauge of
the vitality of the
American, 85
implications of, in the,
41 ff.

professionalism, the drift
toward, has constricted
the volume of lay partici-
pation in the program of
the, 83 f.

program,
lack of a challenging,

INDEX

161

checks lay participation
in the activities of the,
87 ff.

must be one to challenge
men of ability to par-
ticipate in the work of
the, ii 5 f.

retreat idea, the, invaluable
in helping to meet the
deepest need of the mod-
ern, 126 f.

service, all unselfish, Christ-
like, whether under church
auspices or not, should be
welcomed by the, 83
statistics of growth of the

American, 85

survey should be conducted
from year to year to de-
termine the program of
the, 109 f.

undertakings within the

scope of a typical, noff.

union projects, cooperative

finance in connection with,

calls for alert minds

among the laymen of the,

52

youth must be more largely

won to the, 50
Church Army, the, 103
Church history, laymen's con-
tributions as. revealed by,
iff.

Church of England:
Church Army, the, of the,

103
Men's Society, the, of the,

i8f.

retreats in the, 126 f.
Clash of World Forces, The,

131
Clergy:

boys and young men, the
reaching of, the key to
securing an adequate, 106

clerical function often a
handicap to the, 96

industrial problems, Chris-

tian solution of, demands

that the laity come to the

aid of the, 45
laymen,

emphasis upon the impor-
tance of, has produced
a changed conception of
the, ii f.

enlistment of, facilitated
by the character, action,
and utterances of the,
92 ff.

identification with, essen-
tial on the part of the,

95

participation by, extent to
which efficient, is elic-
ited should be die stand-
ard of success of the,
84

practice of the Christian
faith by, essential to
validate the witness to
its adequacy borne by,

45 ff.

service by, the highest
form of, surrendered by
a theory of the Church
which separates the
laity from the, 8 f.

unresponsiveness of, due
largely to inadequate
leadership on the part
of both laity and, 89 ff.

viewpoint and insight of,
the, as essential as those
of the, 54 f.
Mennonites, the, rejected an

official, 16
peril of professionalism on

the part of the, 12
Quaker conception of the,

17 f.
racial problems, Christian

solution of, demands that

laymen aid the, 45
ratio of growth of church

membership to the num-
bers of the, 85

i62 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Clergy ( Continued)
sermons,

lay activity, one of the
greatest instrumentali-
ties for the eliciting of,
by the, 134 f.

service, calculated to kin-
dle die desire to render,
should be preached on
pivotal occasions by the,

social problems, solution of,

demands that laymen aid

the, 45
tribute to the pastoral work

of the, 133 f.
Wyclifs views regarding

the, xz
Colgate - Rochester Divinity

School, vii, ix
Commentary on the Gospel of

St. John, 131

Congregationalists, the, iz f.
Contribution of laymen to the

Christian Church, the, z ff.
Converse, John H., 53
Conwell, Dr. Russell H., 54
Cooper, Charles C., 77
Cooperation, Laymen's Mis-

sionary Movement, the,

promoted the cause of,

22

Cramer, A. M., z6
Curtis, Heber Doust, 77
Cynn, Hugh, 33

David, Dr. A. A., zz6
Davidson, Lord, 126 f.
Dean, J; W., Z33 f.
Democracy within the Chris-

tian Church, 7 f .
Denck, Johannes, 16
Dennis, James S., 38
Denominational agencies eco-

nomically handicapped, 51
Des Moines, campaigns of in-

dividual and social evan-

gelism in, 136
Ding Li-mei, 33

Diseases, brilliant service of
medical missionaries and
Christian civilians in the
combat with, 38

Dissertations on the Apostolic
Age, 8

Dodge, Cleveland H., 53

Dods, Marcus, 131

Dollar, Captain Robert, 60 f.

Dominic, St., 14 f.

Drummond, Henry, 32, io f.,
IZ9, Z34, Z36

Durand, Sir Mortimer, 66

Eagan, John J., 36 f.
Eastern Orthodox communion,

the, z8, 40
Eastman, Fred, 68
Ebara, S., 33
Ecke, Karl, zz
Economic and social evils,

service of laymen in the

struggle against, 37 ff.
Economic basis:
laymen's cooperation and

leadership necessary to

the maintenance of the

Church's, 51 ff.
union projects demand best

minds of the laity in

working out an, 52
Eddy, Sherwood, 33
Edinburgh, world missionary

conference at, 124
Edward Judson, Interpreter of

God, 9

Elliott, A. J., 32
Ellwood, Professor Charles A.,

3

Ely, Professor Richard T., 36
"Employer's View of the
Church's Function in Re-
lation to Industry, An,"

36,37
"Energy, Human and Divine,"

116

Enlistment:
boys and young men, the

winning of, one of the

INDEX

163

great secrets of more ef-
fective lay, 105 ff.
influence, men of, should be
specially included in the
program of lay, 103 ff.
lay collaboration required

for effective lay, 49
principles should be sought
by which might be evolved
a science of, 102 f.
Erasmus, 5

Evangelical Alliance, the, 25
Evangelical Revival, the, 5 f.
Evangelism.:

Des Moines campaigns of
individual and social,
136
great movements of, directed

by laymen, 29

students have experienced
great movements of, 32 f.
See also Revivals, religious
"Every Christian Man at
Work for His Fellow
Men," 93, 109, 118
"Every Man's Life a Plan of

God," 118

Expansion of Christianity in
the First Three Centuries,
The.z

Family, the disintegration of
the, 71

Farquhar, J. N., 32

Farther Appeal to Men of
Reason and Religion, A ,6

Fiftieth Anniversary of the In-
stallation of Richard Sal-
ter Starrs, D.D., LL.D.,
LJI.D., as Pastor of the
Church of the Pilgrims,
The, 44

Financial problems, see Eco-
nomic basis

Finney, Charles G., 30, 98 f.,
130

First Age of Christianity, The,

7
Fiske, George Walter, 71, 77

Forbes, Governor-General W.

Cameron, 67
Forest Hospital at Lambarene,

The, 131

Forums, men's open, 36, in
Fox, George, 17
Francis, Saint, of Assisi, 13 f.
Franciscans, the Order of die,

13 f-

Franck, Sebastian, 17

Fraternal orders, relations be-
tween the Church and the,
81

Friends, the Society of, see
Quakers

Fry, Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred
W., v, vii

Gairdner, Canon W. H. T.,

47. 49

Gandhi, Mahatma, 79 f.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 129
Gem, S. Harvey, 16
George Fox, Seeker and

Friend, 17
Gesta Christi, 38
Gibbon, Edward, 2
Girl Scouts, the, 82
Giving by laymen, 34 f.
Gladden, Washington, 113
Gladstone, William Ewart,

107

Glover, Dr. T. R., 3 f.
God in the Modern World: a

Symposium, 116
Goethe, 127

Gordon, George A., 94
Gore, Bishop Charles, 86 f.
Gospel, laymen essential to the

proclamation of the full,

44 f.

Gospel teams, ziof.
Grauss, Charles, 32
Gray, Herbert, 32
Gray, W. Forbes, 76, 116
Great Britain, investments in

India of residents of, 62
Grenfell, Sir Wilfred, 122
Groote, Gerard, 15

164 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Groups:
importance of forming,

127 S.

most of the important de-
nominational, interdenom-
inational, and youth move-
ments of our day began in
small, 129 f.
Guyon, Madame, 136

Harnack, Adolf, 3

Hart, Sir Robert, 63 f.

Haystack Prayer Meeting
Band, the, 129

Heart of John Wesley's Jour-
nal, The, 131

Heim, Karl, 32

History of the Christian
Church, 5

History of the Christian
Church, see Church his-
tory

History of Christianity in the
Apostolic Age, A, 2

History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire,
The, 2

History of Lay Preaching in
the Christian Church, A,

14

Hobhouse, Professor L. T., 36
Hodder, Edwin, 131
Hodges, Dean George, 6
Hoffmann, Conrad, 32
Holy or Godly Club, the, 129
Honda, Bishop Y., 33
Hoover, Herbert, 39
Hough, Dr. Lynn Harold, viii
Hughes, Charles Evans, 39
Humanistic philosophy, 73
Hurrey, Charles D., 32

Imago Christi: The Example
of Jesus Christ, 103

Imitation of Christ, The, 16,
103

Independents, the, n f., 16

"Individual Work for Individ-
uals," 118, 130

Industry:

laymen must bring their in-
fluence to bear in the
Christian solution of the
problems of, 45
non-Christian world experi-
encing indescribable need
of application of Christian
principles in the spread of
Western, 64 f.

Influence of Christ in the An-
cient World, The, sf.

"Inner Word, the," 16

Interdenominational agencies
economically handicapped,

5*

International Health Board of
the Rockefeller Founda-
tion, 38

Inter-Seminary Missionary Al-
liance, the, 25

Inward light, the, 17

Irwin, Lord, 67

Isaiah, 127

Japanese troops, service of the
Y. M. C. A. among, dur-
ing the Russo-Japanese
War, 26

Jenks, Professor Jeremiah W.,

36, 63

Jerusalem Meeting of the In-
ternational Missionary
Council, 124

position regarding economic
development of backward
countries adopted by the,
62 f.

Jesus Christ and the Social
Question, 131

Jones, E. Stanley, 33, 122, 131,
136

Jones, Rufus M., 15, 17, 131

Journal of John Wool-man, 131

Jowett, J. H., 94, 130

Judson, Edward, 9

Kagawa, Dr. Toyohiko, 33,
79 f., 122, 136

INDEX

165

"Kathplische Aktion und kath-

olische Weltmission," 18
Kellogg, Frank B., 39
Kelman, John, 136
Kelvin, Lord, 96
Kemmerer Professor . W.,

63

Kennedy, John S., 53
Kingdom of God Campaign,

the, 33
Kleros, meaning in the New

Testament of, 8
Koike, S., 33
Koo, T. Z., 33
Kumamoto band, the, 129
Kuyper, Abraham, 39, 94

Lahusen, Pastor, 94
Laidlaw, Sir Robert, 61
Laos, meaning in the New

Testament of, yi.
Lawrence, Rt. Rev. William,

95, 106
Lay Preaching in the Christian

Church, A History of, 14
Layman's Duty to Propagate

His Religion, The, 42
Laymen :

administration of the work

of the Church requires

larger collaboration of,

53

Anabaptists, the, an illustra-
tion of the significance of,
5, i6f.

apologetics, one of the most
telling, afforded by the
practice and propagation
of the Christian faith by,

45 ff.
apostolic age, lessons of the,

concerning, i ff.
apostolic practice regarding,

8

atrophy of Christian, 40
augmentation, needed, of

the forces of, 40 ff.
awakening, the needed, of,

banking affords in the port
cities of Latin America,
Africa, and the East an-
other opportunity for the
exercise of Christian in-
fluence by, 6 1 f.

Baptists a result of leader-
ship by, ii f.

Benedictine Order a mani-
festation of the services
of, 13

boys and younger men,
reaching the, one of the
secrets of increasing the
force of, 105 ff.

Brethren of the Common
Life, the, an outstanding
illustration of the influ-
ence of, 15 f.

Brotherhood of St. Andrew,
the, a significant illustra-
tion of the power of, 18 f.

Brotherhoods of Protestant,
i8ff.

Calvin as an illustration of
the power of, 5

"Catholic Action," the so-
called, and the missionary
activity of Roman Catho-
lic, 18

Christ, lack of personal ex-
perience of, checks partici-
pation of many, 77 f.

Christianizing of the impact
of the West upon the non-
Christian world demands
propagation of the Chris-
tian faith by, 55 ff.

Christianizing of the spread
of Western industry to the
non-Christian world de-
mands Christian, 64 f.

Church, appearance of
apathy and standstill pre-
sented by the, largely re-
sponsible for the inactivity
of, 84 ff.

church history shows most
vital periods to have been

166 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Laymen ( Continued)

those in which there was
most activity of, x ff.
Church of England Men's
Society, the, an illustration
of the power of, 18 f.
citizenship should be made
more Christian through
the influence of Christian,

73

clergy find their witness to
the Christian faith re-
quires validation through
practice of it by, 46 f.

commerce affords a contact
with other peoples the
Christianizing of which
is the Christ - appointed
mission of, 60 f.

community services, removal
of so many, from the re-
sponsibility of the Church
has diverted the attention
of many, 81 ff.

complexity of modern life
largely responsible for the
inactivity of, 78 ff.

conferences, spiritually dy-
namic, have released
much unselfish service on
the part of, 122 ff.

Congregationalists a product
of initiative of, xx f.

constructive measures for
releasing a greater force
of, 92 ff.

contagion of great and pro-
phetic spirits will call
forth the latent capacities
of, 119 ff.

contribution to the Christian
Church of, x ff.

correspondence as a means
of releasing the potential-
ities of, 133

Counter-Reformation period
a time of inactivity of, 7

Dark Ages characterized by
inactivity of, 7

development, their own re-
ligious, demands the initi-
ative, responsibility, and
active participation of,
43 f.

diplomatic and consular
services offer an opportu-
nity for exertion of influ-
ence by Christian, 66

disease in Asia and Africa
powerfully combated by
Christian, 38

distinctive character of the
Church, ensuring of the,
demands more extensive
liberation of, 41

Dominican Order, the, of,
14 f.

Eastern Orthodox orders of,
18

economic support of the
Churches demands the co-
operation and leadership
of, 51 ff.

enlistment, discovery, and
training, principles of,
should be studied by
Christian workers with a
view to calling forth a
larger body of active,
xox ff.

Erasmus, the significance of,
as to die possibilities of, 5

Evangelical Revival, the,
manifested the potential-
ities of, 5 f.

evils of society in the West
correction of which de-
mands the best efforts of,
70 ff.

experience and insight of
wide range and variety
characterize the potential
contribution of, 54 f.

expression in service neces-
sary to maintain the char-
acter and realize the faith
of, 43

family life, to check the dis-

INDEX

167

integration of, there is
need of, 71

financial relations of Orient
and Occident have been
greatly improved by out-
standing, 63 f .

Finney, Charles G., offered
many object lessons in the
liberation of the forces of,
30

foreign students offer a chal-
lenge to Christian, 70

Franciscan Order, the, an
illustration of the power
of, 13 f.

Gospel, proclamation of the
full, requires the partici-
pation of, 44 f.

Groote, Gerard, an exem-
plar of evangelism by, 15

groups,

formation of, the, for lib-
erating the hidden pow-
ers of, 127 ff.
special, made accessible
to religious influences
through the action of,
26 ff.

illustrations of noteworthy
givers among the ranks of,

53

impacts of the West upon
guests from non-Christian
lands should be influenced
by Christian, 69 f.

inactivity of, 43 f.

Independents a result of
leadership by, n f.

industrial misunderstanding,
removal of, demands exer-
cise of the influence of,

45

influence in the community,
men of, should be enlisted
among the active, 103 ff.

influences which militate
against the larger partici-
pation of, 75 ff.

international relations might-

ily promoted by states-
men who are Christian, 39
Kingdom of God Campaign,
the, in Japan character-
ized by participation of,

33
laymen are required to win,

95 ff.

Laymen's Missionary Move-
ment, the, made an un-
precedented appeal to the
imagination of, 20

leadership, lack of adequate
lay and clerical, accounts
in large measure for the
unresponsiveness of, 89 ff.

literature, more use should
be made of dynamic, in
die attempt to interest, en-
list, and build up, 130 f.,

133

Lollards, the, an example of
the possibilities of, 5, 15

losses and leakage between
Sunday school and
Church, between college
and Church, and through
affiliation to other social
and religious organiza-
tions account in part for
the inadequacy of the
forces of, 80 f.

Luther's teaching regarding,

martyrs, early, were most
of them, 6

means for winning a larger
force of active, 117 ff.

Melancthon as an example
of the influence of, 5

Men and Religion Move-
ment, the, a striking illus-
tration of a lay move-
ment which enlisted great
numbers of, 31 f.

men of affairs, enlistment of
the cooperation of, calls
for collaboration of the
strongest, 49

168 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Laymen ( Continued)

Mennonites, the, illustrate
the significance of, 5, 16 f.

minister's character, actions,
and utterances may great-
ly facilitate the calling
forth of the latent capaci-
ties of, 92 ff.

mission, the Christ - ap-
pointed, of, 9, 42

missionary movement, the
modern, illustrates the cre-
ative power of, 6

Mohammedanism bears im-
pressive testimony to the
missionary powers of,

47 ff..

monastic orders of, 13 ff.

money in vast amounts se-
cured to the Christian
cause by, 33 ff.

money power, dominating of
the, with Christian prin-
ciple and passion requires
the action of, 52 f.

Moody, Dwight L., a su-
preme example of the
evangelistic powers of,
30 f.

motion picture industry,
evils in the, need correc-
tion by, 68 f.

movements furnished the
Christian cause by, 13 ff.

need of corrective involved
in proper emphasis upon
the functions of, 12

New Testament reference to,

7f-

non-Christian lands have an
intensified need of active
Christian, 47

numerically there is an enor-
mous body of Christian,
40

obligations of, 42 f.

organizations furnished the
Christian cause by, 13 ff.

Oriental Churches have suf-

fered from loss of vision
of missionary obligations
of, 7

overorganization of altruis-
tic forces is distracting, 82

Pascal a brilliant example of
the influence of, xx

personal work to augment
the forces of, 131 ff.

philanthropy, lessons in
Christian, taught by, 35

Poor Men of Lyons an il-
lustration of the influence
of, 10

Port Royalists of France,
the, as an expression of
the spirit of, n

post-apostolic age, lessons of
the, concerning, 2 ff.

potentialities incalculable in
extent are represented by
the whole body of Protes-
tant, 40

priestcraft, corrective of
dangers of, furnished by,
10 ff.

priesthood of all Christian
believers demonstrated by,
7 ff.

professionalism, the drift
toward, has constricted
the volume of service by,
83 f.

program,

lack on the part of the
Church of a challeng-
ing, often responsible
for the inactivity of
strong, 87 ff.

must be one that will
challenge able, 115!

Quakers preeminent among
contemporary denomina-
tions in demonstrating the
fellowship of, 17 f.

racial misunderstanding, re-
moval of, demands the ex-
ertion of influence by,
45

INDEX

169

Reformation period, the,

and, 4f.
responsibility, definite, should

be placed upon definite,

io8ff., H4&
retreats for, 125 ff.
revivals,

as a force for winning,

135 f.

religious, characterized by
leadership of, 30 f.

Roman Empire, Christianity
extended in the, by, 2 ff.

Schwenckfeld, Caspar von,
and his following afford
an illustration of the
service of, lof.

secularism has dominated
the Church during periods
of inactivity of, 6 f.

sermons intended to kindle
a desire to serve in, 117 ff.

social and economic evils,
leadership and powerful
auxiliary forces in strug-
gle against, supplied by,

37 .
social interest and thought

of, 36 f.

social problems, solution of,
demands participation of
Christian, 45

stagnation of the Church
has occurred during pe-
riods of inactivity of, 6 f .

statesmanship of distin-
guished Christian, 39

stewardship program of the
Churches promoted by, 35

Student Christian Move-
ment, the, a demonstra-
tion of the special effec-
tiveness of the work of,
29

student evangelists, large
proportion of, in past few
decades have been, 33

Sunday-school movement, die,
due to, 6

temporal authority vested

in, ii
Tertullian's conversion an

example of the witness of,

3f.

thought bases of the Church's
work should be strength-
ened by, 54

tourists have a great oppor-
tunity to exert in the East
the helpful influence of
Christian, 67

trust wins the response of,

"5

union projects, cooperative
finance in connection with,
calls for best minds
among the, 52

Unitarians illustrate results
of leadership of, n f.

Waldensians, the, a product
of the contribution of, 10

warfare against war notably
advanced by outstanding
Christian, 39

Wesleyan movement owed
its early expansion to, 6

Wyclif's assertion of the
functions of, 5, n

Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, the, one of the
greatest movements of,
22 ff.

youth can be adequately en-
listed only through the
collaboration of the
younger, 50
Laymen's Foreign Missions

Inquiry, die, 113
Laymen's Missionary Move-
ment, the, 20 ff., 123
Leader or Lord? 90
Leaders:

direction, lack of sense of,
on the part of Christian,
90

economic support of the
Church requires more ex-
tensive force of lay, 51 ff.

170 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Leaders ( Continued)

laymen's unresponsiveness
due to inadequate clerical
and lay, 89 ff.
mission, lack of sense of, on
the part of Christian,
90 f.

power, lack of sense of, one
of the weaknesses of
Christian, 91
revivals of religion directed

by lay, 30 f.

social thought a realm in
which Christian laymen
have proved to be, 36 f.
student Christian movements
provide a disproportion-
ately large number of lay
church, 29

student evangelistic, 32 f.
Lectures on Revivals of Re-
ligion, 130
Leighton, Professor Joseph

Alexander, 71, 73
Lev en en de Verrigtingen van

Menno Simons, Het, 16
Life and Letters of Phillips

Brooks, 107, 132
Life and Work of the Seventh
Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G.,
The, 131
Life of Henry Drummond,

The, 131

Life of Livingstone, 131
Life of Pasteur, The, 116
Life of the Spirit and the Life

of To-day, The, 121
Lightfoot, J. B., 3, 8
Lilje, Hans, 32
Literature :
circulation of Christian,

in f.
laymen,

enlistment and upbuilding
of, by dynamic, 1306,

'33

gifts or loans to, of help-
ful, 133
titles of books -which have

proved to be dynamic,

Little Brothers of the Poor,
see Franciscans, the Order
of

Lloyd George, 39

Lollards, the, 5, 15

London, the Bishop of, 32,
94 f.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray, 131

Luke, 128

Luther, Martin, 5, 8, 10

Lyons, Poor Men of, zo

MacDonald, Ramsay, 39, 76,

99
McGiffert, Arthur Cushman,

2 '. 3
Machine age, the, 75, 79 f.

Mackay, John, 32, 122, 136
Masaryk, Thomas Garrigue,

39

Massey, Chester D., 53

Mathews, Basil, 131

Maury, Pierre, 32

Melanchthon, 5

Memoirs of the Rev. Charles
G. Finney, 99, 131

Memoirs [of Sir Ronald Ross},
with a Full Account of
the Great Malaria Prob-
lem and Its Solution, 98

Memories of a Happy Life,

95

"Men and Church Going," 88
Men and Religion Movement^

the, 31 f.

Menno Simons, 16
Mennonites, the, 5, 16 f.
Men's Bible class movement,

the, 36, 104, izz
Methodists, 6, 129
Miller, Ransford S., 66
Ministry, see Clergy
Ministry of Intercession, The,

131

Minor Prophets, The, 131
Missions:
economic support of, de-

INDEX

171

mands lay cooperation
and leadership, 51
laymen are needed to cor-
rect the social evils which
constitute untaken forts
in the rear of foreign,
70 ff.

modern movement of, the, 6
Mohammedan expansion an
object lesson as to the po-
tentialities of laymen in
the cause of, 47 ff.
priesthood of all believers,
die effect of the, upon, 9 f.

Missions and Social Progress,
38

Miyagawa, Dr. T., 94.

Mockert, F., 32

Mohammedanism, the witness
of, as to the value of lay
activity, 47 ff.

Monasticism, 12
laymen within the orders of,
13 ff.

Money for the Christian cause
secured by laymen, 33 ff.

Monnier, J., 32

Monod, Theodore, 94

Moozo, N., 32

Moody, Dwight L., 30!., 32,
35, 118, 120, 123, 130

Morgan, J. Pierpont, 46

Morrow, Dwight W., 66

Motion picture industry, the,
68 f.

Muller, George, 35

Munzer, Thomas, 17

Murray, Andrew, 120, 131

Mystics of the Church, The,

X2I

Naturalistic school of philoso-
phy, the, 76 f.

Near East, the Oriental
Churches in the, 7

New Testament, teaching of
the, regarding laymen, 7 f.

Nias, the revival on the island
of, 136

Nicol, Sir Robertson, 94
Nicolai, Archbishop, 120
Nicolay, Baron Paul, 32
Niebuhr, Reinhold, 122
Nitobe, Inazo, 33
Non-Christian lands:
laymen,
active Christian, specially

essential in, 47
needed to Christianize the
impact of the West
upon, 55 f.

visitors to the U. S. A. from,

should be brought into

contact with Christian

laymen, 69 f.

Non-Church-Going: Reasons

and Remedies, 76
Northern Africa, the present-
day Oriental Churches of,
7

On the Edge of the Primeval

Forest, 131

Oriental Churches, the, 7
"Outreach of the Associations

to the Non-Christian

World, The," 59
Oxford, 136

Parkhurst, Dr. Charles Henry,

94

Parks, Reverend Leighton, 132
Pascal, ii

Passion for Souls, The, 130
Pasteur, Louis, 1x5 f.
Paton, John G., 120
Paul, K. T., 32 f.
Peabody, Francis G., 131
Pearsons, D. K., 53
Penance, Brothers and Sisters

of, see Franciscans, the

Order of
Pershing, General John J.,

65

Personal dealing, 131 ff.
Personality and Science, viii
Pfisterer, H., 18
Phelps, Austin, 131

172 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Philanthropy, lessons taught by
lay leaders as to Chris-
tian, 35

Plotinus, 95

Port Royalists, the, n

Post-apostolic age, lessons of
the, 2ff.

Preacher's Story of His Work,
A, 107

Priestcraft, xoff.

Priesthood, universal, 7 ff.
Schwenckfeld and the, lof.
vital results of, 9 f.

Primitive Church, see Apos-
tolic age, etc.

Protestant communion, the,
18 ff., 40

Protestant Episcopal Church
of the U. S. A., the, 18 f.

Puckler, Count, 32

Quakers, the, 17 f.

Race:
fostering right relations as

to, 112

laymen must bring their in-
fluence to bear in the
Christian solution of prob-
lems of, 45

Raikes, Robert, 6

Railway and other forms of
transportation, Y.M.C.A.
service to men engaged in,
27

Rainsford, Dr. William
Stephen, 46, 94, 107

Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell,

3

Rauschenbusch, Professor Wal-
ter, 122, 131

"Real Mission of the N.L.M.M.,
The," 58

Recreation Association, the, 82

Reformation :

bands of reformers before

and during the, 129
lessons of the, 4f.

Religion and the Mind of To-
day, 73

Religion and the Modern
Mind, 77

"Religion from the Standpoint
of Science," 77

Revivals, religious, 135 ff.
See also Evangelism

Robert A. Woods, Champion
of Democracy, 83

Roberts, Evan, 136

Rochester Theological Semi-
nary, vii

Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 93,
109, 118

Rockefeller Foundation, Inter-
national Health Board of
the, 38

Rockne, Knute, 99

Rockwell, Professor William
Walker, xi

Roman Catholic Church, xx,
18, 106, 125

Roman Empire, the spread
of Christianity in the,

2ff.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 39, 107
Root, Elihu, 39
Rose, Horace, 32
Ross, Sir Ronald, 97 f.
Round Table experiences of

Stanley Jones, the, 136
Rowell, N. W., 39
Rowntree, John Stephenson,

36

Rowntree, Seebohm, 36
Russell H. Coniaell, Founder

of the Institutional Church

in America: the Work

and the Man, 55
Ruysbroeck, Jan van, 120 f.

St. Cyres, Stafford Harry

Northcote, Viscount, xx
Sapporo band, the, 129
Sasamori, U., 33
Sasao, Y., 33
Satthianadhan, S., 32
Sayford, S. M., 32
Sayre, Francis B., 66
Schaff, Philip, 5

INDEX

173

Schweitzer, Albert, 122, 131
Schwenckfeld, Caspar von,

xo f.

Schwenckfeld, Luther and der
Gedanke einer apostol-
ischen Reformation, n
Scott, Ernest F., 7
Sears, Charles Hatch, 9
Sebastian Frances Bedeu-
tung fiir die Entioickelung
des Protestantismus, 17
"Secret Prayer," 120
Secularism, 6 f., 73, 75 ff.
See also Machine age
Sermons, desire to serve kin-
dled by, 117 ff., 134 f.
Service, religious development
of laymen requires their
participation in altruistic,

43

Shaftesbury, the Earl of, 39
Signs of These Times, viii
Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 94
Sir Robert Hart, The Romance

of a Great Career, 63
Smith, Dr. George, 66
Smith, George Adam, 131
Smuts, General Jan Chris-

tiaan, 39

Social amelioration and re-
form, 8 1 ff.

Social and economic evils, dis-
tinguished leadership of
laymen in the struggle
against, 37 ff.
Social interest and thought of

laymen, 36 f.

Society, laymen essential to
Christian solution of the
problems of, 45
Socrates, 78

South African War, Y.M.C.A.
N service among British

troops during the, 26
Spanish -American War,
Y.M.C.A. service among
the American troops dur-
ing the, 26
Speer, Robert E., 32, 42, 59

Sperry, Professor Willard
Learoyd, viii

"Spirit of Man the Candle of
the Lord, The," ii8 t

Spiritual Energies in Daily
Life, 131

Spurgeon, Charles, 94

Stalker, James, 103

State, Church and, 16

Steinmetz, Charles, 126

Stewardship :

laymen's contribution to the
Churches' program of, 35
laymen's cooperation neces-
sary to adequate develop-
ment of, 52

Still Hour, The, 131

Starrs, Richard Salter, D.D.,
LL.D., LJfJ)., The Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Instal-
lation of, as Pastor of the
Church of the Pilgrims,
44

Story of a Varied Life, The;
an Autobiography, 46

Streeter, Burnett Hillman, 3

Studd, Sir Kynaston, 119, 133

Student Christian Movement,

the, 29, 99 ff., 122 f.
See also World's Student
Christian Federation

Student Volunteer Movement,
the, 20, 25, 123

Students :

Christian work among, 28 f.
evangelistic movements

among, 32 f.

impacts upon foreign, 70
losses to the Church of col-
lege and university-, 80 f.
religious interest among
students of America, the,
traceable to Christian
student movements band-
ing together Christian,

99 ff.
Studies in Mystical Religion,

15
Sunday school, the, 73, 80

174 LIBERATING THE LAY FORCES

Sunday-school movement, the,

6
Surveys, church, 109!.

Taft, William Howard, 67,

104 f.

Taikyo Dendo, the, 136
Tauler, John, 17
Tawney, Professor R. H., 36
Taylor, Graham, 120
Taylor, J. Hudson, 35, 120
Telford, John, 14
Terrullian, 3 f .
Things New and Old, 113
Thoburn, Bishop J. M., 120
Thomas a Kempis, 16, 103
Thomas, Frank, 94
Thompson, Dr. Robert Ellis,

128

Tilak, N. V., 32
To the Work! To the Work!

130

Tongue of Fire, The, 130
Tractarian Group, the, 129
Training:
Christ the supreme example

in worker-, 102 f.
laymen, active, should be

evolved by scientific prin-

ciples of discovery, enlist-

ment, and, 101 ff.
Training of the Twelve, The,

103
Trumbull, Henry Clay, iz8,

130, 131, 133, 134
Twelve Indian Statesmen, 66
Twitchell, Dr. Joseph, 93
Tyler, Professor Moses Coit,

134

Uemura, of Tokyo, 33
Underbill, Evelyn, 120, 121
Unemployment, 71, 1x2
Unitarians, the, n f.
United States of America:
family life, disintegration

of, in the, 71

financial resources sufficient
to meet the requirements

of the Churches at home

and abroad to be found

in the, 51
giving in 1929 to altruistic

causes in die, 34
investments in Latin Amer-

ica of residents of the,

62
luxury and extravagance in

the, 71 ff.
motion picture industry in

the, 68 f.
paganism, recrudescence of,

in the, 71 f.

race prejudice in the, 71
unemployment in the, 71
Unity:
Christianizing of impacts of

West upon East has been

rendered more imperative

by increasing world, 55 ff.
contribution of the Young

Men's Christian Associa-

tion to the cause of Chris-

tian, 25 f.
Laymen's Missionary Move-

ment, the, promoted, 22

Vallery-Radot, Rene, 116
"Vocation of the Laity, The,"
8, 12

Waldensians, the, 10, 16
Waldo, Peter, 10
Wanamaker, John, 107
Wang, C. T., 33
Warner, Reverend Horace E.,

Washington, Booker T., 35
Weatherford, W. D., 32
Webster, Henry, 134
Welsh Revival, the, 136
Wesley, John, 6
West, evils of society in the,
are untaken forts in the
rear of the foreign mis-
sionary enterprise, 70 ff.
Whately, Archbishop, 9
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 96

INDEX

175

"Who. Controls the Movies?"
68

Whyte, Dr. Alexander, 94, 131

Wilberforce, William, 129

Wilder, Robert P., 33

Will of God and a Man's
Lifeivork, The, 114

Williams, Sir George, 107

Wilson, Wbodrow, 39

Witness-bearing :
Christ, personal experience
of, on the part of laymen
results inevitably in, 78
clergy find practice of Chris-
tianity by laymen essen-
tial to give validity to
their, 46 f.

Mohammedanism in its ex-
traordinary powers of ex-
pansion an object lesson
in the value of lay, 47 ff.
religious development of
laymen requires, 43

Witt, H., 32

Women, giving by men pro-
portionately greatly ex-
ceeded by that of, 51

Wood, Governor - General
Leonard, 67

Woods, Dr. Robert A., 82

Woods, Mrs. Eleanor, 83

"World Situation and the Gos-
pel, The," 57

World War, services of the
Y.M.C.A. in the, 26

World's Student Christian
Federation, the, 25, 29, 33

Wright, Henry B., 32, 114 f.,

134
Wyclif, 5, xi, 15

Yokohama band, the, 129
York, the Archbishop of, 32,

122, 136
Yoshino, Professor S., 33

Young Men's Christian Asso-
cition, the, 22 ff., 82, 104,
113

American Civil War, serv-
ices to soldiers during the,
rendered by, 26

armies and navies, the serv-
ice of, by, 26

Boer War, services to Brit-
ish troops in the, rendered
by, 26

Church, relations to the, of,
80 f.

railway and other trans-
portation employees, serv-
ice to, rendered by, 27

Spanish - American War,
service to American troops
during the, rendered by,
26

World War, service among
the fighting forces and in
prisoner - of - war camps
during the, rendered by,
26

Young People's Society of
Christian Endeavor, the,
25

Young Women's Christian As-
sociation, the, 25, 82
Youth:

lay leadership of the Church,
advantages from the
standpoint of the, of win-
ning the, 107 f.

religious peril, the, of Amer-
ican, 73

urgency of winning the, 108

younger lay element, the,
needed for the more ade-
quate enlistment of, 50
Yui, David, 33
Yun Chi Ho, 33

Ziegler, Heinrich, 17

DR GHAVE

Y ur

48 437 256